Publications

We live on a blue planet, and Earth’s waters benefit many sectors of society. The future of our blue planet is increasingly reliant on the services delivered by marine, coastal and inland waters and on the advancement of effective, evidence-based decisions on sustainable development. “Oceans and Society: Blue Planet” (hereafter denoted as “GEO Blue Planet”) is an initiative of the Group...

This publication consists of three map sheets that display shallow geologic structure, along with sediment distribution and thickness, for an about 225-km-long offshore section of the central California coast between Point Sur and Point Arguello. Each map sheet includes three maps, at scales of either 1:150,000 or 1:200,000, as well as a set of figures that contain representative high...

From 1963 to 1973 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) measured heat flow at 356 sites in the Amerasian Basin (Western Arctic Ocean) from a drifting ice island (T-3). The resulting measurements, which are unevenly distributed on Alpha-Mendeleev Ridge (AMR) and in Canada and Nautilus basins, greatly expand available heat flow data for the Arctic Ocean. Average T-3 heat flow is ~54.7 ± 11.3...

Scientific questions regarding the impact of anthropomorphic noise in the marine environment have resulted in an increasing number of regulatory requirements and precautionary mitigation strategies to reduce the risks associated with high-resolution marine geophysical surveys performed in waters subjected to government jurisdiction. An example of regulatory frameworks includes the Marine...

This document provides guidelines for assessing exposure to future coastal flooding during extreme coastal water level events – whether these are due to tides, surge, wave run-up, or, more likely, a combination of the three. These guidelines provide information about the current and future magnitude of extreme coastal water levels across Washington State and the underlying processes that...

Dune erosion is an important aspect to consider when assessing coastal flood risk, as dune elevation loss makes the protected areas more susceptible to flooding. However, most advanced dune erosion numerical models are computationally expensive, which hinders their application in early-warning systems. Based on a combination of probabilistic and process-based numerical modeling, we...

Four dams in the Klamath River Hydroelectric Project (KHP) in Oregon and California (Figure 1) are currently scheduled to be removed over a period of a few weeks or months, beginning in January 2021. The Klamath dam removal will be the largest in the world by almost all measures, and is an unprecedented opportunity to advance science of river responses to such events. The KHP contains

Model predictions of severe storm impacts provide coastal residents, emergency managers, and partner organizations valuable predictive information for planning and response to extreme storm events. The foundation of this work is a USGS-developed numerical model to forecast storm-induced coastal water levels and expected coastal change, including dune erosion, overwash, and inundation...

We identify and describe five giant seafloor depressions from the southeastern continental shelf of the Korean Peninsula using multibeam bathymetry, sub-bottom profiler, and multi-channel seismic reflection data, supplemented by piston cores. Multibeam bathymetry data from the shelf show four crescent-shaped depressions (SD1 to SD4) and one near-circular depression (SD5) within a group...

Combinatorial methods are used to determine the spatial distribution of earthquake magnitudes on a fault whose slip rate varies along strike. Input to the problem is a finite sample of earthquake magnitudes that span 5 kyr drawn from a truncated Pareto distribution. The primary constraints to the problem are maximum and minimum values around the target slip-rate function indicating where...

Coral reefs are widely recognized as critical to Hawaiʻi’s economy, food resources, and protection from damaging storm waves. Yet overfishing, land-based pollution, and climate change are threatening the health and sustainability of those reefs, and accordingly, both the Federal and State governments have called for protection and effective management. In 2000, the U.S. Coral Reef Task...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, is one of three centers serving the mission of the USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program (CMHRP). Since its authorization by Congress in 1962, the CMHRP has served as the primary Federal program for marine geology and physical science research and is responsible...