Sound Waves Newsletter: April-May 2025
What are Key Conditions for Marsh Survival Amid Rising Seas?
As sea levels continue to rise, coastal marshes face increasing risk of inundation and erosion. These wetlands rely on a steady supply of sediment to keep up with rising waters, but the suite of conditions that control sediment accumulation are difficult to predict.
We Make Treasure Maps: USGS Charts the Seafloor to Help Locate Critical Minerals, Precious Metals, and Other Vital Resources
USGS marks the spot! Our science is key to understanding seabed resources. Our maps characterizing the seafloor can help find critical minerals and other resources in high demand worldwide. While advancing scientific knowledge of the seafloor, USGS also leads a national effort to locate the critical minerals needed to drive the U.S. economy and national security. Some of the answer is under water.
Linking tidal-creek sediment fluxes to vertical sediment accretion in a restored salt marsh
A newly published study from USGS combines time-series measurements of sediment fluxes, repeat elevation surveys, and sediment core analysis to assess the long-term progress and future vulnerability of a restored marsh in South San Francisco Bay, part of one the largest wetland restoration projects on the U.S. West Coast.
USGS Coastal Landscape Change Products Help the U.S. Department of Defense Safeguard Military Infrastructure Along the Coast
Faults Beneath the Salton Sea: Assessing Past and Future Earthquake Behavior along Southern San Andreas Fault
The Southern San Andreas Fault (SSAF) is one of the most closely watched seismic hotspots in the world, yet it hasn’t produced a major earthquake in more than 300 years. Scientists have long warned that the region is overdue for a significant rupture that could damage infrastructure and threaten lives.
The Threat of Coastal Flooding from Cascadia Earthquake-Driven Land Subsidence
Along the Pacific Northwest coast, scientists have long warned of a looming threat: a massive earthquake from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, capable of triggering tsunamis and devastating shaking. Now, new research highlights another, often-overlooked danger—the sudden sinking of the land itself and the longer-term threats posed by coastal flooding.
A 700-year rupture sequence of great eastern Aleutian earthquakes from tsunami evidence and modeling
New research from the USGS, University of Hawaiʻi, and the University of California, Santa Cruz provides fresh insights into a prehistoric sequence of earthquakes in the Aleutian Islands. Researchers inferred the earthquake sequence from coastal evidence of high tsunamis that inundated the eastern Aleutian Islands in the past 700 years.
Study: How Coral Reefs Shielded Hawaiian Coastlines Against 2018 Hurricanes
Hurricanes bring powerful waves and storm surges that can erode shorelines and threaten coastal communities. But a new study by USGS and partners details how Hawaii’s coral reefs acted as natural barriers during two successive tropical cyclones that impacted Hawai’i in 2018, reducing wave energy and protecting coastlines.
USGS Research Links Weather Extremes to Coastal Sediment Supply in California
As climate change intensifies, parts of the western U.S. are experiencing a growing swing between extreme drought and intense rainfall, including during several recent extremely wet winter seasons. A new USGS study examines how these hydrologic extremes can dramatically reshape sediment transport in a coastal California river—and how those changes ripple downstream to impact coastlines.
USGS Coral Reef Science Informs State, Territorial, and National Policy
The USGS, working closely with academic institutions, state, territorial, and other Federal agencies, is spearheading efforts to cost-effectively reduce risk to our Nation's coastal communities and infrastructure by restoring its coral reefs.
Permafrost thaw and subsidence, sea-level rise, and erosion are transforming Alaska’s Arctic coastal zone
In the Arctic, which is warming at nearly four times the global average, the combined forces of permafrost thaw, rising seas, and coastal erosion could reshape the landscape far faster than previously believed.
Photo Roundup: April-May 2025
A selection of coastal and ocean videos and photographs from across the USGS.
News Briefs: April-May 2025
News Briefs - featuring coastal and ocean science from across the USGS.