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The world's largest floods, past and present: Their causes and magnitudes The world's largest floods, past and present: Their causes and magnitudes

Floods are among the most powerful forces on earth. Human societies worldwide have lived and died with floods from the very beginning, spawning a prominent role for floods within legends, religions, and history. Inspired by such accounts, geologists, hydrologists, and historians have studied the role of floods on humanity and its supporting ecosystems, resulting in new appreciation for...
Authors
Jim E. O'Connor, John E. Costa

Catalog of earthquake hypocenters at Alaskan volcanoes: January 1 through December 31, 2003 Catalog of earthquake hypocenters at Alaskan volcanoes: January 1 through December 31, 2003

The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), a cooperative program of the U.S. Geological Survey, the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, has maintained seismic monitoring networks at historically active volcanoes in Alaska since 1988. The primary objectives of this program are the near real time seismic...
Authors
James P. Dixon, Scott D. Stihler, John A. Power, Guy Tytgat, Seth C. Moran, John J. Sanchez, Stephen R. McNutt, Steve Estes, John Paskievitch

New seafloor map of the Puerto Rico Trench helps assess earthquake and tsunami hazards New seafloor map of the Puerto Rico Trench helps assess earthquake and tsunami hazards

The Puerto Rico Trench, the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, is located where the North American (NOAM) plate is subducting under the Caribbean plate (Figure l). The trench region may pose significant seismic and tsunami hazards to Puerto Rico and the U.S.Virgin Islands, where 4 million U.S. citizens reside. Widespread damage in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola from an earthquake in 1787...
Authors
Uri S. ten Brink, William Danforth, Christopher Polloni, Brian D. Andrews, Pilar Llanes Estrada, Shepard Smith, Eugene Parker, Toshihiko Uozumi

Dispersal forcing of a southern California river plumes, based on field and remote sensing observations Dispersal forcing of a southern California river plumes, based on field and remote sensing observations

River plumes are important pathways of terrestrial materials entering the sea. In southern California, rivers are known to be the dominant source of littoral, shelf and basin sediment and coastal pollution, although a basic understanding of the dynamics of these river inputs does not exist. Here we evaluate forcing parameters of a southern California river plume using ship-based...
Authors
Jonathan A. Warrick, Leal A.K. Mertes, Libe Washburn, David A. Siegel

Estimating suspended sediment concentrations in turbid coastal waters of the Santa Barbara Channel with SeaWiFS Estimating suspended sediment concentrations in turbid coastal waters of the Santa Barbara Channel with SeaWiFS

A technique is presented for estimating suspended sediment concentrations of turbid coastal waters with remotely sensed multi-spectral data. The method improves upon many standard techniques, since it incorporates analyses of multiple wavelength bands (four for Sea-viewing Wide Field of view Sensor (SeaWiFS)) and a nonlinear calibration, which produce highly accurate results (expected...
Authors
J.A. Warrick, L.A.K. Mertes, D.A. Siegel, C. Mackenzie

Sediment dynamics in the Adriatic Sea investigated with coupled models Sediment dynamics in the Adriatic Sea investigated with coupled models

Several large research programs focused on the Adriatic Sea in winter 2002-2003, making it an exciting place for sediment dynamics modelers (Figure 1). Investigations of atmospheric forcing and oceanic response (including wave generation and propagation, water-mass formation, stratification, and circulation), suspended material, bottom boundary layer dynamics, bottom sediment, and small...
Authors
Christopher R. Sherwood, Jeffrey W. Book, Sandro Carniel, Luigi Cavaleri, Jacopo Chiggiato, Himangshu Das, James D. Doyle, Courtney K. Harris, Alan W. Niedoroda, Henry Perkins, Pierre-Marie Poulain, Julie Pullen, Christopher W. Reed, Aniello Russo, Mauro Sclavo, Richard P. Signell, Peter A. Traykovski, John C. Warner

The Chesapeake Bay Crater: Geology and geophysics of a Late Eocene submarine impact structure The Chesapeake Bay Crater: Geology and geophysics of a Late Eocene submarine impact structure

The list of impact craters documented on Earth is short. Only about 165 genuine impact structures have been identified to date (Table 1.1). Even so, the number is steadily increasing at the rate of ∼3–5 per year (Grieve et al. 1995; Earth Impact Database at http://www.unb.ca/passc/Impact/Database/). In stark contrast, most other rocky planets and satellites of our solar system are...
Authors
C. Wylie Poag, Christian Koeberl, Wolf Uwe Reimold

Enhanced submarine ground water discharge form mixing of pore water and estuarine water Enhanced submarine ground water discharge form mixing of pore water and estuarine water

Submarine ground water discharge is suggested to be an important pathway for contaminants from continents to coastal zones, but its significance depends on the volume of water and concentrations of contaminants that originate in continental aquifers. Ground water discharge to the Banana River Lagoon, Florida, was estimated by analyzing the temporal and spatial variations of Cl−...
Authors
Jonathan B. Martin, Jaye E. Cable, Peter W. Swarzenski, Mary K. Lindenberg
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