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We present a selection of recent USGS coastal and marine social media posts.

This article is part of the February-March 2019 issue of the Sound Waves newsletter.

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How Long Until Capitola Village is Underwater?

How Long Until Capitola Village is Underwater? Patrick Barnard of the USGS tells GoodTimes Santa Cruz how Sea Level Rise & storms could affect the small California beach town. “Just a few inches of sea level rise can cause 100-year events to occur every five years.” 

http://goodtimes.sc/santa-cruz-news/news/long-capitola-village-underwater/

 

Sea Turtle Diseases

Fibropapillomatosis is a disease of sea turtles that causes unsightly external and internal tumors. Learn more about the disease:

https://www.usgs.gov/centers/nwhc/science/sea-turtle-diseases

 

Landslide May 20, 2017 closed California Hwy 1

Landslide May 20, 2017 closed California Hwy 1 in BigSur for over a year - but the earth started moving well before that. New air & drone photo techniques helped CaltransD5 keep workers safe, might spot future slides cheaply. New journal article:

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-019-01160-4

 

Sea Level Rise in Bay Area is Going to Be Much More Destructive Than We Think

A new USGS study factors in high tides, winter storms and erosion into its mathematical models of what sea level rise will mean for coastal California.

https://www.kqed.org/science/1939059/

 

Are you an Otter Spotter?

Find out at:

https://www.usgs.gov/centers/werc/science/california-sea-otter-surveys-and-research


 

Local Flood Forecasting Has Been Dangerously Imprecise—That's About to Change

Scientists are crafting clearer, faster ways to warn of serious damage from flooding:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/local-flood-forecasting-has-been-dangerously-imprecise-mdash-thats-about-to-change1/

 

Mapping the Stamp Sands of Lake Superior

Large amounts of waste material, called "stamp sands," from copper mining were dumped into Lake Superior at many locations in the early 20th century. The consequences are still prevalent today. The high-resolution geophysical mapping conducted by the USGS will help develop a framework for scientific research and provide baseline information required for effectiv resource management within the coastal zone of northern Michigan.

https://m.facebook.com/USGScoastalandoceanscience/posts/2082304141864223 

 

Scientist, Professor, Leader

Marcia McNutt was the first female director of USGS, and oversaw the agency during the Deepwater Horizon spill, and devastating earthquakes in Japan, Haiti & Chile.

https://mobile.twitter.com/USGS/status/1101577311831220224

Lionfish Invaded the SE Coast of the US with Unprecedented Speed

USGS uses genetics & tracking data to better understand their biology & ecology and to figure out where the fish are & where they may go next:

https://www.usgs.gov/centers/wetland-and-aquatic-research-center-warc/science/lionfish-distribution-geographic-spread

 

Today is International Polar Bear Day 

Scientists at the USGS Alaska Science Center have been studying Polar Bears since 1985.

https://www.usgs.gov/centers/asc/science/polar-bear-research

 

Sea Lamprey: A Great Lakes Invader

It's Invasive Species Awareness Week so we bring you the sea lamprey - an invasive fish that looks like it's straignt out of a sci-fi movie with its eel-like appearance and skeleton made of cartilage.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuZIf2DB3va/

 

Uh oh. Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays

The Pacific sand lance is an important forage fish found in Puget Sound. They employ a unique strategy of burrowing into sand to rest and conserve energy, and to avoid predation. The USGS studies forage fish spawning habitats, including how the respond to contaminants.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuT0wXiARYH/

 

A new story map describes detailed mapping along the US Pacific coast and Puget Sound

The effort is part of a collaboration between NOAA, BOEM, & USGS to "map once, use many times". A story map is an interactive map with text, images, and videos. Projects include: Cascadia Margin Ocean Mapping Project offshore Washington, Oregon, and California; updating navigation charts in Washington's Puget Sound and near California's Channel Islands; and the California Deepwater Investigations and Groundtruthing Project offshore of central California.

https://www.facebook.com/USGScoastalandoceanscience/posts/2052833258144645 

 

About 13 percent of the Alaska landscape changed in recent decades

Melting permafrost and disappearing Arctic sea ice mean waves and storms can chew away at the shoreline.

https://twitter.com/USGSCoastChange/status/1095426475426103297

 

We measured potential sediment contaminants near a rail line hauling coal & oil in Puget Sound, Washington 

Arsenic, chromium, copper & nickel "were in the range where adverse biological effects would possibly occur; however, Cr and Ni were ... unlikely to be bioavailable"

https://twitter.com/USGSCoastChange/status/1095388046172684289

 

USGS Wintry Water Work

When temperatures drop in the winter, many manatees head to the warmer waters inCrystal River, Florida, home to several freshwater springs that stay a balmy 72 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. For the past 13 years, USGS scientists and their partners have taken this opportunity to better understand the manatee population in Crystal River.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Btn5EguAh6p/ 

 

Mangrove Forests in a Rapidly Changing World 

USGS examines the effects of global change (e.g., temperature and precipitation changes, invasive non-native species, land use change) on mangrove forests along the Gulf of Mexico coast.

https://twitter.com/USGSWetlands/status/1093894802171670529 

 

USGS 3D Elevation Program New Release

We've just released a new way to access and process 12 TRILLION lidar point cloud records (laser scan elevations and locations) from the USGS 3D Elevation Program, including thousands of miles of US coastline.

https://twitter.com/USGSCoastChange/status/1093598332562206720

 

100 times more landslides!

Hurricane Maria triggered more than 40,000 landslides in PuertoRico. "the number ... was two orders of magnitude greater than those reported from previous hurricanes."

https://twitter.com/USGSCoastChange/status/1093588224902017024 

 

The 8 Main Hawaiian Islands are Made up of 15 Volcanoes

They are the youngest in a chain of more than 129 volcanoes (above and below sea level) that stretches for ~3,800 miles.

https://twitter.com/USGS/status/1092460273942769664

 

Brand new publication from the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center!

The Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) is a freely available software application that works within the Esri Geographic Information System (ArcGIS) software. DSAS computes rate-of-change statistics for a time series of shoreline vector data. This user guide describes the system requirements, installation procedures, and necessary inputs to establish measurement locations with DSAS-generated transects and compute rate-of-change calculations.

https://www.facebook.com/USGScoastalandoceanscience/photos/a.1001761456585169/2029785813782723/ 

 

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