Recent Coastal and Marine Fieldwork

Release Date: May 31, 2019

In May 2019, USGS coastal and marine scientists visited several coastal and offshore locations, studying reservoir sediment after a wildfire disaster in California, a new remote-control surveying boat in Massachusetts, hypersaline lake sediments in the Dominican Republic, and much more.

This article is part of the April-May 2019 issue of the Sound Waves newsletter.

Here’s a quick overview of some recent fieldwork by our researchers.

Whiskeytown Reservoir, California: Mapped bathymetry and sediment thickness in the reservoir to assess runoff after the 2018 Carr Fire disaster, December 10, 2018 to May 31, 2019. Details:
https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2018-686-FA

Plymouth, Massachusetts: Collected drone imagery and elevation data to create digital elevation models using photogrammetric techniques, May 22-23. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-012-FA
Puget Sound, Washington: Post-restoration monitoring of sediment, eelgrass, and organic matter changes, May 19-21. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-617-FA
Westport River, Massachusetts: Tested a new remote-control boat (Q Boat) while collecting ADCP data, May 20. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-021-FA
Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts: Performed erodibility test on Salt Pond sediment cores thought to contain a harmful algae species, May 20. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-022-FA
Offshore Sarasota, Florida: Collected vertical radon and radium distribution data in Gulf of Mexico “blue holes,” May 13-17. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-328-FA
Florida Keys: Measured coral and algal calcification rates at monitoring stations, May 2-13. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-316-FA
Mississippi and Alabama: Collected multibeam bathymetry along the marsh edge and single beam bathymetry perpendicular to shore in Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, May 6-11. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-320-FA
Dominican Republic: Collected sediment samples for geochemical analysis in hypersaline Lake Enriquillo to reconstruct temperature, evaporation, and precipitation patterns over the past few centuries, April 23 to May 7. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-315-FA
Offshore North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida: Studied coral microbiomes, benthic habitat metagenomes, grain size, carbonate content, sediment age, and rock types, April 1-30. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-003-FA, https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-314-FA, https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-620-FA
Stone Harbor and Thompsons Beach, New Jersey: Studied the evolution of beaches, dunes, sediment, and vegetation after restoration, April 23-27. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-016-FA
East Pacific Rise, Pacific Ocean: Experimental mineral oxidation work and mineralogy, March 28 to April 24. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-612-FA
Florida Keys: Retrieved instruments to analyze sediments, currents, and waves; grab sediment samples, April 8-19. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-301-FA
Southern San Francisco Bay, California: Studied biostratigraphy and biomarkers for the first occurrence of several invasive organisms, April 18-19. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-616-FA
South San Francisco Bay, California: Collected bathymetry to study sediment transport in Alviso Slough, Coyote Creek, and Guadalupe Slough, April 1-5. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-614-FA
Florida Keys: Took underwater photos of selected sites to record coral reef elevation changes, March 25-31. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-313-FA
Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, Massachusetts: Measured sediment volume changes in a tidal estuary using drone photogrammetry, March 28-29. Details: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fan=2019-009-FA

For a complete list of USGS Coastal/Marine Hazards and Resources Program fieldwork, see: https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/data_search.php.

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Date published: May 31, 2019

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Date published: May 31, 2019

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