Publications

Ocean surface waves are the dominant temporally and spatially variable process influencing sea floor sediment resuspension along most continental shelves. Wave-induced sediment mobility on the continental shelf and upper continental slope off central California for different phases of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events was modeled using monthly statistics derived from more than...

[1] The similarity of seismograms recorded by two seismic stations demonstrate that the 31 October 2007 moment magnitude M5.4 Alum Rock earthquake is a repeat of a 1955 ML5.5 earthquake. Both occurred on Oppenheimer et al.'s (1990) Zone V “stuck patch” on the central Calaveras fault, providing new support for their model of Calaveras fault earthquake activity. We suggest that Zone V...

This report describes swath bathymetry and backscatter data acquired by the U.S. Geological Survey on the continental shelf within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary between Point Año Nuevo and Moss Landing, in San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Monterey Counties, Calif. The survey was done for the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), in field activities S-7-09-MB and S-10-09-MB...

Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and sequestration in geologic media is one among many emerging strategies to reduce atmospheric emissions of anthropogenic CO2. This chapter looks at the potential of deep saline aquifers – based on their capacity and close proximity to large point sources of CO2 – as repositories for the geologic sequestration of CO2. The petrochemical characteristics which...

Sixty-one Global Positioning System (GPS), sub-aerial beach surveys were completed at 7 km long Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA (USA), between April 2004 and March 2009. The five-year time series contains over 1 million beach elevation measurements and documents detailed changes in beach morphology over a variety of spatial, temporal, and physical forcing scales. Results show that...

During seven surveys between December 2003 and April 2006, 1,045 depth profiles of surface water temperature and salinity were collected to examine variability in water column properties and the influence of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) on the nearshore waters and coral reef complex of Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park, Island of Hawai‘i. This effort was made to...

Three large-scale field experiments were conducted on the Colorado River downstream from Glen Canyon Dam in 1996, 2004, and 2008 to evaluate whether artificial (that is, controlled) floods released from the dam could be used in conjunction with the sand supplied by downstream tributaries to rebuild and sustainably maintain eddy sandbars in the river in Grand Canyon National Park. Higher...

Different removal strategies are described for dams in three diverse drainage basins (Wind River, White Salmon River, and Elwha River basins) in the State of Washington (USA). The comparisons between the strategies offer the opportunity to track the effects of sediment resulting from dam decommissioning in the Pacific Northwest and to determine possible effects on socio-economically...

Since the closure of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963, the hydrology, sediment supply, and distribution and size of modern alluvial deposits in the Colorado River through Grand Canyon have changed substantially (e.g., Howard and Dolan, 1981; Johnson and Carothers, 1987; Webb et al., 1999; Rubin et al., 2002; Topping et al., 2000, 2003; Wright et al., 2005; Hazel et al., 2006). The dam has reduced...

Existing methods for estimating mean grain size of sediment in an image require either complicated sequences of image processing (filtering, edge detection, segmentation, etc.) or statistical procedures involving calibration. We present a new approach which uses Fourier methods to calculate grain size directly from the image without requiring calibration. Based on analysis of over 450...

According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), individual nations? sovereign rights extend to 200 nautical miles (n.mi.) (370 km) offshore or to a maritime boundary in an area called the continental shelf. These rights include jurisdiction over all resources in the water column and on and beneath the seabed. Article 76 of UNCLOS also establishes the criteria...

This report describes geophysical data acquired by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in San Andreas Reservoir and Upper and Lower Crystal Springs Reservoirs, San Mateo County, California, as part of an effort to refine knowledge of the location of traces of the San Andreas Fault within the reservoir system and to provide improved reservoir bathymetry for estimates of reservoir water...