Publications

Desert winds aerosolize several billion tons of soil-derived dust each year, including concentrated seasonal pulses from Africa and Asia. These transoceanic and transcontinental dust events inject a large pulse of microorganisms and pollen into the atmosphere and could therefore have a role in transporting pathogens or expanding the biogeographical range of some organisms by facilitating...

This report presents an overview of preliminary geological investigations and recommended future research activities in the Caribbean region pertaining to coastal hazards with an emphasis on establishing tsunami risk for U.S. territories. Fieldwork was conducted in March 2006 on the islands of Bonaire, Puerto Rico, and Guadeloupe to evaluate the stratigraphic records of extreme wave...

"Along-Track Reef Imaging System (ATRIS)" describes the U.S. Geological Survey's Along-Track Reef Imaging System, a boat-based sensor package for rapidly mapping shallow water benthic environments. ATRIS acquires high resolution, color digital images that are accurately geo-located in real-time.

This report documents part of the National Park Service (NPS)/U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)/National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Aerial Data Collection and Creation of Products for Park Vital Signs Project. This report is one in a series that describes methods for extracting topographic features from aerial survey data as part of a joint project among the NPS Inventory...

Over the past 50 years there has been an explosion in scientific interest, research effort and information gathered on the geologic sedimentary character of the United States continental margin. Data and information from thousands of publications have greatly increased our scientific understanding of the geologic origins of the shelf surface but rarely have those data been combined and...

This report is created as part of the Aerial Data Collection and Creation of Products for Park Vital Signs Monitoring within the Northeast Region Coastal and Barrier Network project, which is a joint project between the National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring Program (NPS-IM), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Observational Sciences Branch, and the U.S...

Southern Monterey Bay was the most intensively mined shoreline (with sand removed directly from the surf zone) in the U.S. during the period from 1906 until 1990, when the mines were closed following hypotheses that the mining caused coastal erosion. It is estimated that the yearly averaged amount of mined sand between 1940 and 1984 was 128,000 m3/yr, which is approximately 50% of the...

Four hurricanes battered the state of Florida during 2004, the most affecting any state since Texas endured four in 1884. Each of the storms changed the coast differently. Average shoreline change within the right front quadrant of hurricane force winds varied from 1 m of shoreline advance to 20 m of retreat, whereas average sand volume change varied from 11 to 66 m3 m−1 of net loss...

This lidar-derived submarine topography map was produced as a collaborative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Geology Program, National Park Service (NPS) South Florida/Caribbean Network Inventory and Monitoring Program, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Wallops Flight Facility. One objective of this research is to create...

The Amazon River supplies more freshwater to the ocean than any other river in the world. This enormous volume of freshwater forces the estuarine mixing out of the river channel and onto the continental shelf. On the continental shelf, the estuarine mixing occurs in a very dynamic environment unlike that of a typical estuary. The tides, the wind, and the boundary current that sweeps the

No abstract available

In January, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists traveled to countries on the Indian Ocean to study sediment deposited by the devastating tsunami of December 26, 2004. They hope to gain knowledge that will help them to identify ancient tsunami deposits in the geologic record—which extends much farther into the past than written records—and so compile a history of tsunamis that can be...