Publications
Scientific reports, journal articles, and information products produced by USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center scientists.
Filter Total Items: 1417
Petroleum hydrocarbons in sediment from the northern Gulf of Mexico shoreline, Texas to Florida Petroleum hydrocarbons in sediment from the northern Gulf of Mexico shoreline, Texas to Florida
Petroleum hydrocarbons were extracted and analyzed from shoreline sediment collected from the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) coastline that could potentially be impacted by Macondo-1 (M-1) well oil. Sediment was collected before M-1 well oil made significant local landfall and analyzed for baseline conditions by a suite of diagnostic petroleum biomarkers. Oil residue in trace quantities...
Authors
Robert J. Rosenbauer, Pamela L. Campbell, Angela Lam, T.D. Lorenson, Frances D. Hostettler, Burt Thomas, Florence L. Wong
Book review: Rogue waves in the ocean Book review: Rogue waves in the ocean
Rogue Waves in the Ocean (2009) is a follow-on text to Extreme Ocean Waves (2008) edited by Pelinovsky and Kharif, both published by Springer. Unlike the earlier text, which is a compilation of papers on a variety of extreme waves that was the subject of a scientific conference in 2007, Rogues Waves in the Ocean is written, rather than edited, by Kharif, Pelinovsky, and Slunyaev and is...
Authors
Eric L. Geist
Overview of the ARkStorm scenario Overview of the ARkStorm scenario
The U.S. Geological Survey, Multi Hazards Demonstration Project (MHDP) uses hazards science to improve resiliency of communities to natural disasters including earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, landslides, floods and coastal erosion. The project engages emergency planners, businesses, universities, government agencies, and others in preparing for major natural disasters. The project also...
Authors
Keith Porter, Anne Wein, Charles N. Alpers, Allan Baez, Patrick L. Barnard, James Carter, Alessandra Corsi, James Costner, Dale Cox, Tapash Das, Mike Dettinger, James Done, Charles Eadie, Marcia Eymann, Justin Ferris, Prasad Gunturi, Mimi Hughes, Robert Jarrett, Laurie Johnson, Hanh Dam Le-Griffin, David Mitchell, Suzette Morman, Paul Neiman, Anna Olsen, Suzanne Perry, Geoffrey Plumlee, Martin Ralph, David Reynolds, Adam Rose, Kathleen Schaefer, Julie Serakos, William Siembieda, Jonathan D. Stock, David Strong, Ian Sue Wing, Alex Tang, Pete Thomas, Ken Topping, Chris Wills, Lucile Jones
By
Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Earthquake Hazards Program, Science Application for Risk Reduction, Geologic Hazards Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Big Sur Landslides, Reducing Risk, San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary
Chapter 50 Geology and tectonic development of the Amerasia and Canada Basins, Arctic Ocean Chapter 50 Geology and tectonic development of the Amerasia and Canada Basins, Arctic Ocean
Amerasia Basin is the product of two phases of counterclockwise rotational opening about a pole in the lower Mackenzie Valley of NW Canada. Phase 1 opening brought ocean–continent transition crust (serpentinized peridotite?) to near the seafloor of the proto-Amerasia Basin, created detachment on the Eskimo Lakes Fault Zone of the Canadian Arctic margin and thinned the continental crust...
Authors
Arthur Grantz, Patrick E. Hart, Vicki A Childers
Sediment dynamics and the burial and exhumation of bedrock reefs along an emergent coastline as elucidated by repetitive sonar surveys: Northern Monterey Bay, CA Sediment dynamics and the burial and exhumation of bedrock reefs along an emergent coastline as elucidated by repetitive sonar surveys: Northern Monterey Bay, CA
Two high-resolution bathymetric and acoustic backscatter sonar surveys were conducted along the energetic emergent inner shelf of northern Monterey Bay, CA, USA, in the fall of 2005 and the spring of 2006 to determine the impact of winter storm waves, beach erosion, and river floods on biologically-important siliclastic bedrock reef habitats. The surveys extended from water depths of 4 m...
Authors
C. D. Storlazzi, T.A. Fregoso, N.E. Golden, D.P. Finlayson
Rising sea level may cause decline of fringing coral reefs Rising sea level may cause decline of fringing coral reefs
Coral reefs are major marine ecosystems and critical resources for marine diversity and fisheries. These ecosystems are widely recognized to be at risk from a number of stressors, and added to those in the past several decades is climate change due to anthropogenically driven increases in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. Most threatening to most coral reefs are elevated...
Authors
Michael E. Field, Andrea S. Ogston, Curt D. Storlazzi
Growth rate and age distribution of deep-sea black corals in the Gulf of Mexico Growth rate and age distribution of deep-sea black corals in the Gulf of Mexico
Black corals (order Antipatharia) are important long-lived, habitat-forming, sessile, benthic suspension feeders that are found in all oceans and are usually found in water depths greater than 30 m. Deep-water black corals are some of the slowest-growing, longest-lived deep-sea corals known. Previous age dating of a limited number of black coral samples in the Gulf of Mexico focused on
Authors
N.G. Prouty, E.B. Roark, N.A. Buster, Steve W. Ross
The ANTOSTRAT legacy: Science collaboration and international transparency in potential marine mineral resource exploitation of Antarctica The ANTOSTRAT legacy: Science collaboration and international transparency in potential marine mineral resource exploitation of Antarctica
The Antarctic Offshore Stratigraphy project (ANTOSTRAT; 1989–2002) was an extremely successful collaboration in international marine geological science that also lifted the perceived “veil of secrecy” from studies of potential exploitation of Antarctic marine mineral resources. The project laid the groundwork for circum-Antarctic seismic, drilling, and rock coring programs designed to...
Authors
Alan Cooper, Peter Barker, Peter Barrett, John Behrendt, Giuliano Brancolini, Jonathan R. Childs, Carlota Escutia, Wilfried Jokat, Yngve Kristoffersen, German Leitchenkov, Howard Stagg, Manabu Tanahashi, Nigel Wardell, Peter Webb
Nearshore Tsunami Inundation Model Validation: Toward Sediment Transport Applications Nearshore Tsunami Inundation Model Validation: Toward Sediment Transport Applications
Model predictions from a numerical model, Delft3D, based on the nonlinear shallow water equations are compared with analytical results and laboratory observations from seven tsunami-like benchmark experiments, and with field observations from the 26 December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The model accurately predicts the magnitude and timing of the measured water levels and flow velocities...
Authors
Alex Apotsos, Mark Buckley, Guy Gelfenbaum, Bruce Jaffe, Deepak Vatvani
Anthropogenic influences on shoreline and nearshore evolution in the San Francisco Bay coastal system Anthropogenic influences on shoreline and nearshore evolution in the San Francisco Bay coastal system
Analysis of four historical bathymetric surveys over a 132-year period has revealed significant changes to the morphology of the San Francisco Bar, an ebb-tidal delta at the mouth of San Francisco Bay estuary. From 1873 to 2005 the San Francisco Bar vertically-eroded an average of 80 cm over a 125 km2 area, which equates to a total volume loss of 100 ± 52 million m3 of fine- to coarse...
Authors
K.L. Dallas, P.L. Barnard
Recent storm and tsunami coarse-clast deposit characteristics, southeast Hawai'i Recent storm and tsunami coarse-clast deposit characteristics, southeast Hawai'i
Deposits formed by extreme waves can be useful in elucidating the type and characteristics of the depositional event. The study area on the southeast coast of the island of Hawaiʻi is characterized by the presence of geologically young basalts of known age that are mantled by recent wave-derived sedimentary deposits. The area has been impacted by large swells, storms and tsunamis over...
Authors
B. M. Richmond, Sebastian Watt, M. Buckley, B. E. Jaffe, G. Gelfenbaum, R.A. Morton
Petroleum prospectivity of the Canada Basin, Arctic Ocean Petroleum prospectivity of the Canada Basin, Arctic Ocean
Reconnaissance seismic reflection data indicate that Canada Basin is a >700,000 sq. km. remnant of the Amerasia Basin of the Arctic Ocean that lies south of the Alpha-Mendeleev Large Igneous Province, which was constructed across the northern part of the Amerasia Basin between about 127 and 89–83.5 Ma. Canada Basin was filled by Early Jurassic to Holocene detritus from the Beaufort...
Authors
Arthur Grantz, Patrick E. Hart