Cheryl Hapke, Ph.D.
I am a research coastal geologist at the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) in St. Petersburg, FL. My scientific expertise is focused on coastal change processes over multiple time and spatial scales and in a variety of geomorphic environments.
Biography
I began my career at the USGS in 1997 at the Pacific Science Center in Santa Cruz, CA, where I studied coastal cliff erosion hazards and coastal landslide processes. In 2005, I relocated to the East Coast, first working with the National Park Service through Patuxent Wildlife Research Center at University of Rhode Island and then through the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center. My research focused on beach erosion hazards and processes along the East Coast and in particular at Fire Island, NY. In 2011, I transferred to the St Petersburg (FL) Coastal and Marine Science center expanded my research to study the impacts of Hurricane Sandy to Fire Island, which has made a significant contribution to the broad understanding of how barrier islands respond to and recover from major storms. I served a 3 month detail to FEMA in the months following Sandy, providing expertise in coastal science to numerous federal and NY State agencies as part of the National Disaster Recovery Framework.
Education
Ph.D., Coastal Geology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California
M.S., Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
B.S., Geology; University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Science and Products
The Florida Coastal Mapping Program
The Florida Coastal Mapping Program (FCMaP) is an initiative between Federal and Florida State agencies and institutions to coordinate and facilitate the collection and accessibility of Florida coastal seafloor data in order to fill priority areas and gaps.
Florida Coastal Mapping Program—Overview and 2018 workshop report
The Florida Coastal Mapping Program is a nascent but highly relevant program that has the potential to greatly enhance the “Blue Economy” of Florida by coordinating and facilitating sea-floor mapping efforts and aligning partner and stakeholder activities for increased efficiency and cost reduction. Sustained acquisition of modern coastal mapping...
Hapke, Cheryl J.; Kramer, Philip A. ; Fetherston-Resch, Elizabeth H.; Baumstark, Rene D.; Druyor, Ryan; Fredericks, Xan; Fitos, Ekaterina
A numerical model investigation of the impacts of Hurricane Sandy on water level variability in Great South Bay, New York
Hurricane Sandy was a large and intense storm with high winds that caused total water levels from combined tides and storm surge to reach 4.0 m in the Atlantic Ocean and 2.5 m in Great South Bay (GSB), a back-barrier bay between Fire Island and Long Island, New York. In this study the impact of the hurricane winds and waves are examined in order...
Bennett, Vanessa C. C.; Mulligan, Ryan P.; Hapke, Cheryl J. Characterizing storm response and recovery using the beach change envelope: Fire Island, New York
Hurricane Sandy at Fire Island, New York presented unique challenges in the quantification of storm impacts using traditional metrics of coastal change, wherein measured changes (shoreline, dune crest, and volume change) did not fully reflect the substantial changes in sediment redistribution following the storm. We used a time series of beach...
Brenner, Owen T.; Lentz, Erika E.; Hapke, Cheryl J.; Henderson, Rachel; Wilson, Kathleen; Nelson, Timothy
Morphologic evolution of the wilderness area breach at Fire Island, New York—2012–15
IntroductionHurricane Sandy, which made landfall on October 29, 2012, near Atlantic City, New Jersey, had a significant impact on the coastal system along the south shore of Long Island, New York. A record significant wave height of 9.6 meters (m) was measured at wave buoy 44025, approximately 48 kilometers offshore of Fire Island, New York. Surge...
Hapke, Cheryl J.; Nelson, Timothy R.; Henderson, Rachel E. ; Brenner, Owen T.; Miselis, Jennifer L. Hurricane Sandy beach response and recovery at Fire Island, New York: Shoreline, beach profile data, and breach shoreline data: October 2012 to June 2016
Fire Island, New York is the site of a long term coastal morphologic change and processes project conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). One of the objectives of the project was to understand the morphologic evolution of the barrier system on a variety of time scales (months–years–decades–centuries). In response to Hurricane Sandy (...
Henderson, Rachel E. ; Hapke, Cheryl J.; Brenner, Owen T.; Reynolds, Billy J.
Coastal bathymetry data collected in May 2015 from Fire Island, New York—Wilderness breach and shoreface
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, conducted a bathymetric survey of Fire Island from May 6-20, 2015. The USGS is involved in a post-Hurricane Sandy effort to map and monitor the morphologic evolution of the wilderness breach as a part of the Hurricane...
Nelson, Timothy R.; Miselis, Jennifer L.; Hapke, Cheryl J.; Brenner, Owen T.; Henderson, Rachel E. ; Reynolds, Billy J.; Wilson, Kathleen E.
Nearshore sediment thickness, Fire Island, New York
Investigations of coastal change at Fire Island, New York (N.Y.), sought to characterize sediment budgets and determine geologic framework controls on coastal processes. Nearshore sediment thickness is critical for assessing coastal system sediment availability, but it is largely unquantified due to the difficulty of conducting geological or...
Locker, Stanley D. ; Miselis, Jennifer L.; Buster, Noreen A.; Hapke, Cheryl J.; Wadman, Heidi M. ; McNinch, Jesse E. ; Forde, Arnell S.; Stalk, Chelsea A.
Bathymetry data collected in October 2014 from Fire Island, New York—The wilderness breach, shoreface, and bay
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, conducted a bathymetric survey of Fire Island, New York, from October 5 to 10, 2014. The U.S. Geological Survey is involved in a post-Hurricane Sandy effort to map and monitor the morphologic evolution of the wilderness breach,...
Nelson, Timothy R. ; Miselis, Jennifer L.; Hapke, Cheryl J.; Brenner, Owen T.; Henderson, Rachel E. ; Reynolds, Billy J.; Wilson, Kathleen E. Decoupling processes and scales of shoreline morphodynamics
Behavior of coastal systems on time scales ranging from single storm events to years and decades is controlled by both small-scale sediment transport processes and large-scale geologic, oceanographic, and morphologic processes. Improved understanding of coastal behavior at multiple time scales is required for refining models that predict potential...
Hapke, Cheryl J.; Plant, Nathaniel G.; Henderson, Rachel E. ; Schwab, William C.; Nelson, Timothy R.
Coastal bathymetry data collected in June 2014 from Fire Island, New York—The wilderness breach and shoreface
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, collected bathymetric data along the upper shoreface and within the wilderness breach at Fire Island, New York, in June 2014. The U.S. Geological Survey is involved in a post-Hurricane Sandy effort to map and monitor the...
Nelson, Timothy R.; Miselis, Jennifer L.; Hapke, Cheryl J.; Wilson, Kathleen E.; Henderson, Rachel E.; Brenner, Owen T.; Reynolds, Billy J.; Hansen, Mark E. Terrestrial-based lidar beach topography of Fire Island, New York, June 2014
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) in Florida and the USGS Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center (LMG WSC) in Montgomery, Alabama, collaborated to gather alongshore terrestrial-based lidar beach elevation data at Fire Island, New York. This high-resolution elevation dataset was...
Brenner, Owen T.; Hapke, Cheryl J.; Lee, Kathryn G.; Kimbrow, Dustin R. Coastal Topography—Fire Island, New York, 07 May 2012
Lidar-derived bare-earth topography Digital Elevation Model (DEM) mosaic and classified point-cloud datasets for Fire Island, New York, were produced from remotely sensed, geographically referenced elevation measurements collected on May 7, 2012.
Fredericks, Alexandra M.; Hapke, Cheryl J.; Lentz, Erika
USGS Tracks Evolution of a Fire Island Hurricane-Made Breach
A study finds that although the “wilderness breach” created by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 has reached a relatively stable size and location, the channel and shoals will keep changing in response to weather. Related research shows the breach isn’t likely to increase storm-tide flooding in Great South Bay.
USGS Names New Director of St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
Cheryl J. Hapke begins work this week as the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey’s St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.