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Publications

Scientific reports, journal articles, and information products produced by USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center scientists.

Filter Total Items: 1417

An exploration of the relative influence of physical models for Omori’s law An exploration of the relative influence of physical models for Omori’s law

Omori’s law states that the rate of aftershocks decays as a function of inverse time. There are multiple physical explanations that we reduce into a nonlinear mixed effects relation of three terms: (1) a Rate/State expression that can account for static/dynamic and viscoelastic triggering caused directly by the mainshock, (2) a fluid diffusion triggering term, and (3) a randomized...
Authors
Thomas E. Parsons, Eric L. Geist, L. Malagnini

Extremophile hotspots linked to containerized industrial waste dumping in a deep-sea basin Extremophile hotspots linked to containerized industrial waste dumping in a deep-sea basin

Decaying barrels on the seafloor linked to DDT contamination have raised concerns about the public health implications of decades old industrial waste dumped off the coast of Los Angeles. To explore their contents, we collected sediment cores perpendicular to five deep-sea barrels. The concentration of DDT and its breakdown products were highly elevated relative to control sites yet did...
Authors
Johanna Gutleben, Sheila Podell, Kira Mizell, Douglas Sweeney, Carlos Neira, Lisa A. Levin, Paul R. Jensen

Analysis of a human-mediated microbioinvasion: The global spread of the benthic foraminifer Trochammina hadai Uchio, 1962 Analysis of a human-mediated microbioinvasion: The global spread of the benthic foraminifer Trochammina hadai Uchio, 1962

A non-indigenous species (NIS) of benthic foraminifera was first identified in a core collected in 1993 in San Francisco Bay, California, USA, and subsequently identified as Trochammina hadai Uchio, 1962. Archived samples and literature reviews were used to determine that the species, which is native to Asia, arrived in San Francisco Bay between the early 1960s and 1983. Through...
Authors
Mary McGann, Maria Holzmann, Vincent M.P. Bouchet, Sibelle Trevisan Disaró, Patricia P.B. Eichler, David W. Haig, Stephen J. Himson, Hiroshi Kitazato, Jean-Charles Pavard, Irina Polovodova Asteman, Andre R. Rodrigues, Clement M. Tremblin, Masashi Tsuchiya, Mark A. Williams, Phoebe O'Brien, Josefin Asplund, Malou Axelsson, Thomas Lorenson

Mitigating flood risks in urban estuaries: Tidal dynamics, shoreline hardening, nature-based solutions, and floodgates in San Francisco Bay Mitigating flood risks in urban estuaries: Tidal dynamics, shoreline hardening, nature-based solutions, and floodgates in San Francisco Bay

Hydrodynamic models are valuable tools for understanding the primary factors influencing daily and peak water levels and for guiding discussions on potential adaptation strategies for managing flood risk in coastal areas. This analysis uses the Delft3D San Francisco Bay-Delta Community Model to simulate water levels and incorporates the effects of a number of adaptation measures in the...
Authors
Kees Nederhoff, Rohin Saleh, Patrick L. Barnard, Mark T. Stacey

Comparison of creek and bay influences on salt marsh sediment budget and deposition patterns Comparison of creek and bay influences on salt marsh sediment budget and deposition patterns

The resilience of salt marshes with low organic production depends on their effective capture and retention of mineral sediment from adjacent waters. Little prior work has directly compared mechanisms of sediment import from wave-influenced marsh boundaries against those of tidal creeks. We used simultaneous deployment of net-deposition tiles and oceanographic sensors to identify the...
Authors
Lukas T. WinklerPrins, Jessica R. Lacy, Mark T. Stacey, Karen M. Thorne, McKenna Leigh Bristow, Scott Jones

Land-based nutrient flux to a fringing reef: Insights from Ofu Island, American Samoa Land-based nutrient flux to a fringing reef: Insights from Ofu Island, American Samoa

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is a critical driver of nutrient transport in coral reef ecosystems, shaping water quality, primary productivity, and overall reef health. This study quantifies SGD fluxes and associated nutrient dynamics in two reef flat pools within the Ofu Unit of the National Park of American Samoa: Papaloloa and Fatuana. A multi-method approach integrating...
Authors
Nancy G. Prouty, Ferdinand K.J. Oberle, Olivia M. Cheriton, Lauren Toth, Eric K. Brown, Curt D. Storlazzi

Contributions of erosion, deposition, and human activities to a change in sand storage in the bed of San Francisco Bay, California, 1980s to 2010s Contributions of erosion, deposition, and human activities to a change in sand storage in the bed of San Francisco Bay, California, 1980s to 2010s

This study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) provides estimates of the change in sand storage in bed sediments from the 1980s to 2010s in the San Francisco Bay area, California. The study is part of a larger project called “Research to Understand Impacts of Bay Sand Mining on Sand Transport in San Francisco Bay and the Outer Coast” that has the goal of providing information for the...
Authors
Theresa A. Fregoso, Bruce E. Jaffe, Amy C. Foxgrover, Donald L. Woodrow, Bethany Kharrazi, Kevin Orzech

Benchmarking shoreline prediction models over multi-decadal timescales Benchmarking shoreline prediction models over multi-decadal timescales

Robust predictions of shoreline change are critical for sustainable coastal management. Despite advancements in shoreline models, objective benchmarking remains limited. Here we present results from ShoreShop2.0, an international collaborative benchmarking workshop, where 34 groups submitted shoreline change predictions in a blind competition. Subsets of shoreline observations at an...
Authors
Yongjing Mao, Giovanni Coco, Sean Vitousek, Jose A. A. Antolinez, Georgios Azorakos, Masayuki Banno, Clément Bouvier, Karin R. Bryan, Laura Cagigal, Kit Calcraft, Bruno Castelle, Xinyu Chen, Maurizio D'Anna, Lucas de Freitas Pereira, Iñaki  de Santiago, Aditya N. Deshmukh, Bixuan Dong, Ahmed Elghandour, Amirmahdi Gohari, Eduardo Gomez-de la Peña, Mitchell D. Harley, Michael Ibrahim, Déborah Idier, Camilo Jaramillo Cardona, Changbin Lim, Ivana Mingo, Julian O'Grady, Daniel Pais, Oxana Repina, Arthur Robinet, Dano Roelvink, Joshua Simmons, Erdinc Sogut, Katie Wilson, Kristen Splinter

Seasonal rotation of California pocket beaches Seasonal rotation of California pocket beaches

Pocket beaches are short, headland-bound coastal landforms that may exhibit shoreline rotation in response to time-varying wave conditions. Here we examine the presence, location and style of pocket beach rotation along the 1700 km coast of California using a comprehensive 22-year satellite-derived shoreline dataset. These analyses identify 23 pocket beaches that exhibit annual cycles of...
Authors
Jonathan A. Warrick, Daniel D. Buscombe, Kilian Vos, Andrew C. Ritchie, Bob Battalio

Are equilibrium shoreline models just convolutions? Are equilibrium shoreline models just convolutions?

Yes. Equilibrium shoreline models, which simulate wave-driven cross-shore erosion and accretion, are mathematically equivalent to a discrete convolution (i.e., a weighted, moving average) of a time series of wave-forcing conditions with a parameterized memory-decay kernel function. The direct equivalence between equilibrium shoreline models and convolutions reveals key theoretical...
Authors
Sean Vitousek, Daniel D. Buscombe, Eduardo Gomez-de la Peña, Kit Calcraft, Mark A. Lundine, Kristen D. Splinter, Giovanni Coco, Patrick L. Barnard

Waterline responses to climate forcing along the North American West Coast Waterline responses to climate forcing along the North American West Coast

Understanding waterline variability at seasonal to interannual timescales is crucial for predicting coastal responses to climate forcing. However, relationships between large-scale climate variability and coastal morphodynamics remain underexplored beyond intensively monitored sites. This study leverages a newly developed 25-year (1997–2022) satellite-derived waterline dataset along the...
Authors
Marcan Graffin, Rafael Almar, Erwin W.J. Bergsma, Julien Boucharel, Sean Vitousek, Mohsen Taherkhani, Peter Ruggiero

Do Graviquakes exist? Do Graviquakes exist?

The “Graviquake” model, proposed in 2015 as an alternative to the elastic dislocation model, posits that normal faults are passive features dominated by coseismic gravitational collapse into a dilated crustal wedge, and that normal faulting is fundamentally distinct from strike‐slip and reverse faulting. Developed using finite‐element modeling before the 2016 central Apennines earthquake...
Authors
L. Malagnini, Dreger D.., Thomas E. Parsons, G. Valensise, A. Michelini, G. De Natale
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