•  Start with Science to Address Vulnerable Coastal Communities
• Hurricane Sandy Coastal Change Hazards
• Predicted Likelihood of Coastal Change Impacts from Hurricane Sandy
• Hurricane Sandy Storm Tide Data and Mapper
• Water-Quality Sampling Immediately After Hurricane Sandy
• Real-Time Monitoring: Rapid deployment storm tide sensors and streamgages, and permanent streamgages in Sandy impact area
• USGS Issues Landslide Alert for Hurricane Sandy
• WaterWatch: View streamflow during Hurricane Sandy (Oct 29 and subsequent days)

• Coastal Change Hazards: Hurricanes and Extreme Storms
• Coastal Elevation Data: Access National Elevation Dataset and other coastal elevation information
• Sustainable Estuaries, Coastal, Urban, and River Enviroments
• Ready.gov

More than 160 USGS scientists, technicians, and specialists are responding to Hurricane Sandy’s aftermath, from Virginia to Massachusetts. Crews from USGS are working hard to retrieve data for emergency managers.

Hurricane Sandy’s impacts have been significant. Many USGS tidal sensors recorded peaks of record and several were completely overtopped. In addition, high-water marks flagged by USGS crews show sizeable storm surge, including 18.98 feet at Long Branch, NJ; 12.93 feet at the Verazzano Narrows Bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island, NY; and 7.43 feet at Lindenhurst on Long Island, NY.

USGS scientist recovers storm surge sensor in Annapolis, MD.

Storm-Surge Sensors

USGS crews are currently out retrieving the more than 150 storm-surge sensors that were deployed prior to Sandy’s landfall. These sensors extended from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia to the coast of Maine.

The data from these sensors will be used to create models of the precise time the storm-tide arrived, how ocean and inland water levels changed during the storm, the depth of the storm-tide throughout the event, and how long it took for the water to recede.

This information gathered is being used to assess storm damage, discern between wind and flood damage, and improve computer models used to forecast future coastal change.

All data collected by these sensors and the existing USGS streamgage network are available on the USGS Storm-Tide Mapper.

High-Water Marks

In addition, at the request of FEMA, USGS scientists are marking high-water marks. Crews in New York currently have 150 sites they are checking, many established in the 1992 Noreaster that struck the Long Island area. New Jersey crews have an additional 100 sites they are checking along the Atlantic shoreline as conditions are safe to do so. USGS scientists from Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, and Rhode Island are also be looking for high-water marks in their areas.

USGS scientist Kerry Caslow using RTN GPS surveying to establish an elevation for a storm-tide sensor in New Jersey. Photo credit: Chris Smith, USGS.

High-water marks serve a very important function in assessing damage. USGS crews look for sustained high-water marks, meaning indications of the highest level the water stayed for a time. Because water-levels change often due to wave action, sustained high-water marks allow USGS scientists to determine the levels the water stayed at long enough to cause significant impacts.

High-water marks are useful in determining the amount of damage sustained due to flooding and storm surge. Impact models use high-water marks to determine likely levels of damage to a building’s structural integrity, as well as potential scour damage. Scour damage is the abrasive erosion caused by dissolved solids in water rubbing against buildings or other structures that can wear away the surface, eventually leading to instability.

In addition, FEMA uses high-water marks to determine what damage comes from wind and what damage comes from water when formulating their own impact models.

Coastal Change

In addition, USGS crews have returned to coastal New Jersey and Long Island to do lidar surveys for before and after studies of coastal change, using the pre-storm lidar surveys taken October 26^th and 27^th.

Also, USGS crews will conduct aerial surveys from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, to Montauk, New York. These surveys will include oblique aerial photography and lidar topography. The photographs will be compared to pre-storm photography for a qualitative look at coastal erosion, while the lidar data will be compared to pre-storm beach elevations to quantify actual changes in the beach, such as dune erosion and overwash.

Water Quality

USGS crews have also performed water quality sampling at various locations, including the Delaware River near Trenton, New Jersey; from the Potomac River and the Eastern Shore in Maryland; various sites in Washington, DC, and sites throughout Northern Virginia.

Oblique aerial photographs of Fire Island, New York, at Pelican Island before and after Hurricane Sandy impacts shows coastal change on an undeveloped coastline.

Oblique aerial photographs of Seaside Heights, New Jersey, before and after Hurricane Sandy impacts shows coastal change on a developed coastline.

Exploring Mars with Curiosity poster

In early August, the Mars Science Laboratory rover known as “Curiosity” landed successfully to begin its 23 month mission of searching the Martian surface for evidence of environmental conditions capable of supporting microbial life. On October 25^th the U.S. Geological Survey will have a lecture featuring USGS Geologist Ken Herkenhoff, a member of the Curiosity mission’s team talking about what scientists have discovered so far during this mission, particularly at the Gale crater landing site. Learn how scientists are using special instruments aboard Curiosity to analyze dust and rocks, to learn about the role of water in forming the Martian landscape.

Time: Thursday, October 25, 2012 • 7-8pm

Speaker: Ken Herkenhoff, USGS Geologist and Member of the Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity” Team.

Location: 345 Middlefield Road, Building 3 Auditorium, second floor, Menlo Park, CA 94025

Phone:  650-329-4000

FREE and Open to the Public
Follow this event live streaming over the Internet!

This announcement and directions can be found online.

USGS biologists translocated critically endangered Laysan Teal, such as this adult with brood, from Laysan Island to Midway Island in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands to expand the species’ population and range and help guard against extinction.

Saving a critically endangered species takes time and patience. U.S. Geological Survey scientists learned this anew as they surveyed the toll on the critically endangered Laysan teal (Anas laysanensis) from last year’s Pacific Ocean Tōhuku Tsunami generated by an earthquake in Japan.

The population of Laysan teal, a small duck once found throughout the Hawaiʻian Islands, had grown rapidly from an estimated 450 birds on tiny Laysan Island to an estimated 830 birds by 2010 at two sites after successful reintroduction to Midway Atoll led by Michelle Reynolds, a research wildlife biologist with the USGS Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Rendered extinct on Hawaii’s main islands hundreds of years ago by the human introduction of rats, the teal had been found in recent times only in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, which are rat-free. In 2004 and 2005, Reynolds and her multi-agency team moved 42 of the surviving birds on Laysan Island within the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, a strategic World War II battlefield that is now part of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument – and that, like Laysan, is free of mammalian predators. The teal on Midway took to their new island home, managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and produced more ducklings than ever documented before.

Then came the March 2011 tsunami that washed over large areas of both Midway and Laysan islands. At Midway Atoll, the tallest wave was nearly 5 feet. As Reynolds and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service monitor the population to determine the impact of the tsunami on both refuge areas, they are reassured by the knowledge they gained from the successful reintroduction effort. Research on the conservation biology of endangered species will help not only the Laysan teal but many island species worldwide that are vulnerable to random disasters, and affected by climate change, habitat loss or predation by non-native species.

John Klavitter of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, left, and USGS biologist Michelle Reynolds attach transmitters to critically endangered Laysan teal that were translocated from Laysan to Midway Island to expand the species’ population and range.

“The species is still at risk,” Reynolds said. “The wild translocation to re-establish a second population was shown to be feasible and successful, but more populations are needed to reduce the high risks of living on low-lying tiny islands.”

In conservation biology, “translocation” is the managed relocation of members of a wildlife species – either captive-bred or from the wild – to someplace else in hope of expanding the species’ population and range. Fewer than half the translocations of threatened species are deemed successful by their investigators. Problems can arise with the population to be moved, such as lack of genetic diversity limiting its breeding success, or with the proposed new habitat, or because of an abundance of predators. Sometimes, the new home just doesn’t seem right to the translocated species and the animals will disperse across the landscape, and scientists have to find out why they don’t survive or breed. Many years ago, a previous effort to save the Laysan teal failed when the translocated birds simply turned up their bills at their new location – as sometimes happens – and tried to fly back to Laysan, never to be seen again.

Reynolds’ work with the Laysan teal emphasized not only keeping them close to the release site to acclimate them during the critical first few months after translocation, but also to learn everything possible about how the species uses and adapts to habitat. The birds’ flight feathers were trimmed when they were released at Midway, so they could not fly for the first year after translocation. This would not have been possible if rats, accidentally introduced during WWII, had not been removed from the atoll when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took over Midway’s management in 1996. Extra food was set out near the release site that first season, so the teal might be less likely to scatter across the island rather than choose mates and breed.

Even so, Reynolds recalls, the birds “sometimes didn’t follow the plan.”

“We had one female bird that just went off by herself, just walked a couple of kilometers to the middle of the island, away from all potential mates, to nest without a drake. She produced multiple infertile nests there, until the population grew,” she said. Most ducks, however, found mates and produced successful nests in their first year on Midway. By 2010, there were more than 400 Laysan teal on Midway. The growth was leveling off, a sign that the species’ population density may have been reached. This is important to know for future translocations: A long-term goal is to return the Laysan teal – “Hawaiʻi’s own duck,” – Reynolds said – to a higher-elevation site in the main Hawaiʻian Islands. Reynolds’ and co-authors’ latest research is published in a recent issue of Animal Conservation.

USGS biologists translocated critically endangered Laysan Teal, such as this one, from Laysan Island to Midway Island in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands to expand the species’ population and range and help guard against extinction.

Because both Laysan and Midway are so remote, Reynolds has been able to visit the study sites with the Laysan teal only once or twice a year after the reintroduction. The refuge field camp at Laysan is a five- or six-day boat trip from Honolulu and an inter-island flight from Hawaiʻi Island, where Reynolds works at the USGS Kīlauea Field Station. Field biologists must stay for months and bring food, water and other supplies. Midway Atoll has an airstrip with thrice-monthly flights, but it is also remote, located approximately 350 miles northwest of Laysan.

Both Laysan and Midway are part of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (also called the Leeward Islands), small, low-lying islands and atolls running some 1200 miles northwest of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau in the Pacific Ocean. Jointly protected as the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, and Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, the 140,000-square-mile region is designated by UNESCO as one of only 26 mixed (natural and cultural) World Heritage Sites on the planet. Remote and ecologically vulnerable, most of the Northwestern Hawaiian Island region is uninhabited and closed to the public. Midway has about 60 residents, as well as scientific installations including a USGS seismic monitoring station.

Young boys working in a newly cropped field in Africa.

In parts of eastern Africa, drought is of increasing concern, as poor families suffer from food shortages and the inability to grow crops and sustain livestock. Stunted growth in children due to malnutrition has also been linked to climate trends in Africa.

Drought conditions are expected to continue as global temperatures continue to rise and rainfall declines across parts of eastern Africa.

This poses increased risk to millions of people in Africa who currently face potential food shortages.

What’s being done to help?

The USGS is involved in a variety of research efforts to help understand current and future conditions in Africa, helping to inform plans to provide aid.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, or FEWS NET, is one endeavor that has already made great strides in helping to address this issue. FEWS NET helps target more than $1.5 billion of assistance to more than 40 countries each year.

FEWS NET examines the populations of the developing world with the most food insecurity, identifying critical situations in which food aid will be needed. These are populations whose livelihoods are typically tied to subsistence rain-fed agriculture and pastoralism.

FEWS NET is sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Food for Peace and the USGS is actively involved.

FEWS NET at the United Nations Climate Convention

A USGS presentation on FEWS NET will be a featured side event on November 30, 2011, at the United Nations 17^th annual Conference of the Parties (COP-17) in Durban, South Africa. The convention’s purpose is to develop international agreements and a declaration of policies and practices for combating climate change and its impacts around the world.

A herder moves cattle through a barren landscape in eastern Africa.

Climate forecasts and remote sensing help spot future trouble

FEWS NET has developed its own climate services to provide decision makers with early identification of agricultural drought that might trigger food insecurity. Scientists use climate forecasts to develop forward-looking food security assessments that are based on expected agricultural outcomes for the season ahead.

Since networks of ground observation stations are often sparse or reported late in FEWS NET countries, satellite remote sensing of vegetation and rainfall fills in the gaps. Remote sensing from space allows for rapid, accurate assessments of a broad range of environmental and agricultural conditions. USGS scientists provide the technologies and expertise to support remote sensing for FEWS NET activities.

Early warning of famine in Somalia helps pre-position food supplies

On July 20, 2011, the United Nations declared parts of Somalia as a region of famine. The decision was supported by FEWS NET and USGS observational evidence of conditions in the area.

The declaration was the culmination of early warning communications encouraging — months before the crisis — that government and other agencies pre-position food and supplies in the region.

“None of the many uses of Earth-observing satellites is more vital — or has as much potential for prompting timely humanitarian intervention — as famine early warning,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “Remote sensing from space allows USGS scientists to provide rapid, accurate assessments of a broad range of environmental and agricultural conditions.”

The eastern Horn of Africa, the continental region that encompasses Somalia, has experienced two consecutive seasons of very poor rainfall resulting in the worst drought in 60 years. Crops have failed, livestock deaths are widespread, and food prices are very high. While the rains this winter have been good, food prices remain high, and the food security situation remains insecure.

Stunted growth linked to malnutrition and climate change

Other USGS research is helping to identify the impacts of a changing climate on Africa’s people. Scientists recently discovered that malnutrition and dry hot living conditions are linked to stunted growth in Mali, West Africa.

USGS research found that Mali was becoming substantially warmer and a little bit drier. Scientists also knew that farmers and those who make a living raising sheep, cattle, goats, or camels were poor, and that stunted growth was occurring throughout Mali.

Scientists wondered if there could be a link between human health and increasingly warm and dry conditions.

To investigate, the USGS worked with the University of California, Santa Barbara, to study climate observations and demographic and health data. The Demographic and Health Survey program routinely compiles data from surveys in 90 countries to study trends in health and population. Scientists analyzed statistics on specific villages in Mali and found that there was a link between a warmer climate and increased stunting.

Population growth combined with the impacts of warming will further increase these health impacts.

Stunting was also linked to other factors, such as mother’s education and the water supply system. Women’s education, improved water supplies, and agricultural development could help to address malnutrition and stunting in Mali.

An article on this research was published in in the journal, Applied Geography, by San Diego State University, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the USGS.

A Food Security Assessment in Somalia found severe impacts on livestock due to drought conditions.

Other studies underway

Other new research includes the discovery that the warming of the Indian and western Pacific oceans (which is linked to global warming) affects rainfall over large areas of the Horn of Africa. As the globe has warmed over the last century, the Indian Ocean and western Pacific have warmed especially fast.

The resulting warmer air and increased humidity over the Indian and western Pacific oceans produce more frequent rainfall in that region. The air loses its moisture during rainfall, and then flows westward and descends over Africa, leading to decreased rain in parts of eastern Africa. Trends toward increased frequency of drought that we are seeing now are likely to continue into the future as warming continues.

A few recent articles on this research were published in the journal, Climate Dynamics, by scientists with the USGS, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. The most recent article concludes that global warming will lead to a decrease in rainfall during the summer monsoon season, from June to September, across southern Sudan, southern Ethiopia, and northern Uganda.  Another article concluded that eastern Africa, particularly Kenya and southern Ethiopia, will also have a significant decrease in rainfall during the long-rains season from March to June.

USGS scientists are working hard to translate these technical studies into reports for decision makers. To date, they have completed summary fact sheets focused on Sudan and Kenya.

Scientists also found that some regions, like northern Ethiopia, are not getting drier due to current warming temperatures. Rainfall varies dramatically across all of eastern Africa, with high mountainous areas typically receiving many times the rainfall received in low-lying areas. Therefore, agricultural growth in these climatically safe regions could help offset rainfall declines in other locations.

Start with science

Scientists are looking at clues and changes in nature to understand the impacts of global warming. In Africa, impacts are seen across the landscape — on farms and even in humans.

By starting with science, well-informed decisions can be made to help Africa as it faces drought, famine, and health concerns.

FEWS NET partners include the USAID, Chemonics International, the USGS, NASA, NOAA, and the USDA. The Geography Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is a partner to the USGS in this effort.

Want more information?

Listen to a podcast interview with USGS scientists as they discuss ongoing efforts to understand conditions in Africa.

Elwha River: Rebirth of a River

By Jeffrey J. Duda, Jonathan A. Warrick, and Christopher S. Magirl

After years of planning for the largest project of its kind, the Department of the Interior will begin the removal of two dams on the Elwha River, Washington, in September 2011.

But how will the removal of these dams impact the river’s sediments, waters, and fish?

Local Pacific Salmon and Steelhead Gone or Critically Low in Numbers

For nearly 100 years, the Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams have disrupted natural processes, trapping sediment in the reservoirs and blocking fish migrations, which changed the ecology of the river downstream of the dams.

All five Pacific salmon species and steelhead — historically present in large numbers — are locally extirpated or persist in critically low numbers.

Upstream of the dams, more than 145 kilometers of pristine habitat, protected inside Olympic National Park, awaits the return of salmon populations. As the dams are removed during a 2 – 3 year project, some of the 19 million cubic meters of entrapped sediment will be carried downstream by the river in the largest controlled release of sediment into a river and marine waters in history.

Understanding the changes to the river and coastal habitats, the fate of sediments, and the salmon recolonization of the Elwha River wilderness will provide useful information for society as future dam removals are considered.

Key Restoration Questions About Dam Removal

• How will the rebuilding of salmon populations unfold, especially in terms of life history diversity and productivity?
• What will be the response of resident fish populations and other aquatic life to returning salmon populations?
• How and when will sediment redistribute through the system?
• How quickly will the ecosystem stabilize after full dam removal, especially the former reservoir areas?
• How will released sediment affect freshwater and marine ecosystems and their biota?
• How will other animals, such as ducks, river invertebrates, frogs, and black bears, respond to dam removal and the return of salmon to the upper parts of the watershed?
• How will plants recolonize and what influence will invasive species play in revegetating exposed reservoir areas?

The Role of the USGS

The USGS is implementing many integrated research and monitoring activities in the Elwha River ecosystem. Studies are focusing on comparing physical and ecosystem processes before, during, and after dam removal.

This work is important for developing baseline information to evaluate the effects of the dams, as well as to measure ecosystem responses following dam removal. With federal, state, academic, and tribal partners, the USGS is developing new ecological information about the Elwha River fish and wildlife populations, vegetation patterns and dynamics, sediment transport and storage in the reservoirs, river channel and coastal evolution downstream of the dam sites, hydrological processes, nearshore bathymetry, coastal habitats, and beach erosion.

For more information on the fisheries and aquatic resources, hydrology, sediment release, coastal studies, vegetation, and partners, read the rest of the fact sheet: Elwha River Dam Removal — Rebirth of a River

Beautiful Stream photo courtesy Andrew Hyde

As a nation, we use over 75 billion gallons of groundwater each day. September 13 is the National Groundwater Association’s “Protect Your Groundwater Day,” a celebration of one of our nation’s critical resources and an opportunity to learn what we can do to ensure we continue to have enough of it. While the USGS does not manage or regulate groundwater, it has provided the public and policymakers with groundwater information for over 60 years. As the primary federal agency for water resource information, the USGS is uniquely equipped to collect water quality and quantity data on national, regional, and local scales.

You can check out the National Protect Your Groundwater Day website to calculate your water usage or to see suggestions on how to protect and conserve groundwater. Visit the USGS Groundwater Informationpage for additional information on USGS groundwater quality and availability studies.

Learn more about wildfires with GeoMAC

Fire managers and the public can access online maps of current wildfire
locations, thanks to a Web-based mapping application provided by the USGS
and its partners.

Learn more

Map of real-time streamflow

Rivers and streams are reaching record levels as a result of Hurricane Irene’s rainfall, with more than 80 USGS streamgages measuring record peaks. USGS scientists are measuring streamflow and river levels, and repairing and installing streamgages.

Crews continue to collect and analyze storm surge data from Hurricane Irene and document coastal erosion impacts. Other crews are out sampling water for pesticides, E. coli, nutrients, and sediment to document water quality impacts in areas affected by the hurricane.

John Erbland, Hydrologic Technician with the USGS South Carolina Water Science Center, holds a white board with information on the Hurricane Irene storm surge sensor deployment on a pier by the U.S. Coast Guard Station in the town of Wrightsville Beach.

John Byrnes of the USGS office in Troy, NY collecting a Hurricane Irene sample at the Mohawk River at Cohoes on August 29, 2010. As Hurricane Irene left her mark along the East Coast, USGS crews sampled water for pesticides, E. coli, nutrients, and sediment to document water quality in areas affected by the hurricane.

Links to flooding, storm surge, coastal erosion, and water quality information are available at:

• USGS Hurricane Irene Response

News Releases:

• Aerial Photos of Outer Banks Show Coastal Damage from Hurricane Irene
• Smart Phones Know When Rivers Rise…with USGS WaterAlert
• River Levels Set Records in 10 States
• Media Advisory: USGS Crews to Retrieve Storm Surge Sensors
• USGS In the Surge Sampling for Nutrients, Sediment, E. coli, and Pesticides
• USGS Responds to Hurricane Irene and Prepares for Aftermath
• Stormproofing Water Data from Hurricane Irene
• USGS Installs Sensors along Atlantic prior to Hurricane Irene’s Arrival
• Extensive Erosion Likely along North Carolina Beaches during Irene

Video:

• 2011: Interior Thanks USGS for Flood Efforts

Other Agencies:

• NWS Flood Page
• NOAA Hurricane Center
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

August 23, 2011 USGS Community Internet Intensity Map

Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 01:51 PM a 5.8 Earthquake occurred 38 miles outside of Richmond, VA.
Learn More

Let us know, Did You Feel It?

Portable Seismometers:

Over the next few days, the USGS will be deploying portable seismometers around northern Virginia in order to better characterize and monitor all aftershock activity and to better define the fault zone from which Tuesday’s earthquake originated.

Walruses off the northwestern Alaska coast.

USGS scientists study walruses off the northwestern Alaska coast in August as part of their ongoing study of how the Pacific walrus are responding to reduced sea ice conditions in late summer and fall.

More Information:

• News Release – Pacific Walruses Studied as Sea Ice Melts
• Podcast – Projecting the future population status of the Pacific walrus
• Walrus FAQs
• USGS Alaska Science Center Walrus Page

Additional Photos:

Walruses resting on an ice floe in the Chukchi sea.

Scientists prepare to radio-tag walruses in the Chukchi sea to track movements as sea ice is reduced in the region.

USGS scientists can follow radio-tagged walruses remotely as they move around the Arctic Basin.

Scientists travel to the Chukchi and Bering seas to radio-tag walruses.

Scientists radio-tag walruses in the Chukchi and Bering seas to better understand their movements and foraging behavior.