Managing waterborne and water-related diseases is one of the most critical factors in the aftermath of hurricane-induced natural disasters. The goal of the study was to identify water-quality impairments in order to set the priorities for post-hurricane relief and to guide future decisions on disaster preparation and relief administration. Field investigations were carried out on St...

We use >10,000 km of high-resolution seismic-reflection data together with multibeam bathymetry to document complex and highly variable post-Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) sediment distribution and thickness in the coastal zone (~10 m isobath to 5.6 km offshore) along a ~800 km section of central California's transform continental margin. Sediment thickness ranges from 0 (seafloor bedrock)...

Sediment transport across bay–marsh interfaces depends on wave energy, vegetation, and marsh-edge morphology, and varies over a range of timescales. We investigated these dynamics in a tidal salt marsh with a gently-sloped, vegetated edge adjacent to northern San Francisco Bay. Spartina foliosa (cordgrass) inhabits the lower marsh and Salicornia pacifica (pickleweed) predominates on the...

Sedimentation can bury corals, cause physical abrasion, and alter both spectral intensity and quality; however, few studies have quantified the effects of sedimentation on coral reef metabolism in the context of episodic sedimentation events. Here, we present the first study to measure coral community metabolism - calcification and photosynthesis - in a manipulative mesocosm experiment...

Linking fault behavior over many earthquake cycles to individual earthquake behavior is a primary goal in tectonic geomorphology, particularly across an entire plate boundary. Here, we examine the 1150-km-long, right-lateral Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault system using comprehensive multibeam bathymetry data acquired along the Queen Charlotte Fault (QCF) offshore southeastern Alaska...

Marginal probability distributions for parameters representing an effective sound-speed structure of a fine-grained sediment are inferred from a data ensemble maximum entropy method that utilizes a sparse spatially distributed set of received pressure time series resulting from multiple explosive sources in a shallow-water ocean environment possessing significant spatial variability of...

Transport by asymmetrical wave motions plays a key role in cross-shore movement of sand, which is important for bar migration, exchange through tidal inlets, and beach recovery after storms. We have implemented a modified version of the SANTOSS formulation in the three-dimensional open-source Coupled-Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment Transport (COAWST) modeling framework. The calculation of...

Surge and wave forcing from Hurricane Matthew caused a breach south of Matanzas Inlet (FL, USA) on a complex barrier island, including sandy dunes, hard structures (residential buildings and a highway), wetlands, and the US Intracoastal Waterway. In this paper, the skill of the XBeach model to predict hurricane-induced barrier island overwash, dune erosion, and breaching is demonstrated...