Florence Bascom Geoscience Center
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The Florence Bascom Geoscience Center (FBGC) is at the leading edge of scientific research addressing critical societal issues and providing unbiased data and information to decision makers and the public. Our research center is built around five broad science themes: Paleoclimate & Paleoecology, Landscape Science, Geologic Mapping, Hazards, and Special Geologic Studies.
Story on Mid-Atlantic Stream/Sediment Science
FBGC's ecologist Greg Noe's work is highlighted in this great article discussing legacy erosion and sedimentation in Mid-Atlantic watersheds.
View StoryClimate Change Impacts on Mangrove Forests
FBGC scientists Miriam Jones and Lynn Wingard were recently interviewed by NPR regarding climate change and mangrove forests.
Listen to InterviewBiography of Florence Bascom
The video in the link below is a brief but informative introduction to the life and work of Florence Bascom.
See BiographyNews
Memorial to Jack B. Epstein (1935-2020)
Recently, the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, USGS lost Jack Epstein, a colleague, mentor, and friend. Here is a fitting tribute and memorial to Jack and his nearly 60 years with USGS.
National Preparedness Month 2020: Landslides and Sinkholes
Natural hazards have the potential to impact a majority of Americans every year. USGS science provides part of the foundation for emergency preparedness whenever and wherever disaster strikes.
Floodplain Ecosystem Service Mapper Released
The Floodplain Ecosystem Service Mapper is a web application that displays field site data and lidar-derived floodplain and stream channel geomorphic metrics in the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay watersheds.
Publications
The Yorktown Formation: Improved stratigraphy, chronology and paleoclimate interpretations from the U.S. mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain
The Yorktown Formation records paleoclimate conditions along the mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain during the mid-Piacenzian Warm Period (3.264 to 3.025 Ma), a climate interval of the Pliocene in some ways analogous to near future climate projections. To gain insight into potential near future changes, we investigated Yorktown Formation outcrops and...
Dowsett, Harry J.; Robinson, Marci M.; Foley, Kevin M.; Herbert, Timothy D. A practical solution: The Anthropocene is a geological event, not a formal epoch
The Anthropocene has yet to be defined in a way that is functional both to the international geological community and to the broader fields of environmental and social sciences. Formally defining the Anthropocene as a chronostratigraphical series and geochronological epoch with a precise global start date would drastically reduce the Anthropocene’...
Gibbard, Philip; Bauer, Andrew M; Edgeworth, Matthew; Ruddiman, William F; Gill, Jacquelyn L.; Merritts. Dorothy J; Finney, Stanley C.; Edwards, Lucy E.; Walker, Michael J.C.; Maslin, Mark; Ellis, Erle C Influence of permafrost type and site history on losses of permafrost carbon after thaw
We quantified permafrost peat plateau and post-thaw carbon (C) stocks across a chronosequence in Interior Alaska to evaluate the amount of C lost with thaw. Macrofossil reconstructions revealed three stratigraphic layers of peat: (1) a base layer of fen/marsh peat, (2) peat from a forested peat plateau (with permafrost) and, (3) collapse-scar bog...
Manies, Kristen L.; Jones, Miriam C.; Waldrop, Mark; Leewis, Mary-Catherine; Fuller, Christopher C.; Cornman, Robert S.; Hoefke, Kristen