Publications

The bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor volcanic chain is an often-cited example of a change in plate motion with respect to a stationary hotspot. Growing evidence, however, suggests that the bend might instead record variable drift of the Hawaiian hotspot within a convecting mantle. Paleomagnetic and radiometric age data from samples recovered during Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 197 define...

Geotechnical engineering methods are validated through comparison of field‐data of surface deformations and sub‐surface state properties. Recent advances in non‐invasive surface imaging and sub‐surface stiffness characterization allow us to rapidly and inexpensively map these spatial and physical properties in two and three dimensions. In this paper, we discuss new technologies used at...

The Sediment Transport Instrumentation Group (STG) at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Woods Hole Science Center has a long-standing comitment to providing scientists with high quality oceanographic data. To meet this commitment, STG personnel are vigilant in checking data as well as hardware for signs of instrument malfunction. STG data sets are accompanied by processing histories to...

An experiment was conducted along the reefs off west Maui, Hawaii, during the summer of 2003 to monitor the spawning of the reef-building coral Montipora capitata and to determine the role of ocean currents in dispersing the larvae from the natal reef. Instruments documented the environmental forcing during the coral spawning season; drifters were deployed on three successive nights...

Continual sediment accumulation in Capitol Lake since the damming of the Deschutes River in 1951 has altered the initial morphology of the basin. As part of the Deschutes River Estuary Feasibility Study (DEFS), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) was tasked to model how tidal and storm processes will influence the river, lake and lower Budd Inlet should estuary restoration occur

Introduction: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Federal Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) guidelines do not currently exist for conducting and incorporating tsunami hazard assessments that reflect the substantial advances in tsunami research achieved in the last two decades; this conclusion is the result of two FEMA-sponsored workshops and the associated Tsunami Focused Study...

[1] The November 2000 New Ireland earthquake sequence started with a Mw = 8.0 left‐lateral main shock on 16 November and was followed by a series of aftershocks with primarily thrust mechanisms. The earthquake sequence was associated with a locally damaging tsunami on the islands of New Ireland and nearby New Britain, Bougainville, and Buka. Results from numerical tsunami‐propagation...

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No abstract available.

A collaborative project between the U.S. Geological Survey's Coastal and Marine Geology Program and the National Park Service (NPS) has been developed to create an inventory of geologic resources for National Park Service lands on the Big Island of Hawai'i. The NPS Geologic Resources Inventories are recognized as essential for the effective management, interpretation, and understanding...

[1] The right‐lateral San Gregorio and San Andreas faults meet west of the Golden Gate near San Francisco. Coincident seismic reflection and refraction profiling across the San Gregorio and San Andreas faults south of their junction shows the crust between them to have formed shallow extensional basins that are dissected by parallel strike‐slip faults. We employ a regional finite element...

Thin layers of plankton are recurrent features in a variety of coastal systems. These layers range in thickness from a few centimeters to a few meters. They can extend horizontally for kilometers and have been observed to persist for days. Densities of organisms found within thin layers are far greater than those above or below the layer, and as a result, thin layers may play an...