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Search indexed USGS publications on groundwater, aquifers, geologic maps, mineral resources and earthquakes. Explore source records by subject and place.

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At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
USGS2004

Landslides triggered by the 13 January and 13 February 2001 earthquakes in El Salvador

During a one-month period in early 2001 , El Salvador experienced two devastating earthquakes . On 13 January , a M-7.7 earthquake centered ∼40 km off the southern coast in the Pacific Ocean caused widespread damage and fatalities throughout much of the country. The earthquake triggered thousands of landslides that were broadly scattered across the southern half of the country. The most damaging landslide , a rapidly moving mass of ∼130, 000 m 3 , occurred in the Las Colinas neighborhood of Santa Tecla, where ∼585 people were killed. Another large landslide (∼750, 000 m 3 ) near the city of San Vicente blocked the Pan-American Highway for several weeks. One month later, on 13 February , a M-6.6 earthquake occurred ∼40 km east-southeast of San Salvador and triggered additional thousands of landslides in the area east of Lake Ilopango. The landslides were concentrated in a 2500 km 2 area and were particularly abundant in areas underlain by thick deposits of poorly consolidated, late Pleistocene and Holocene Tierra Blanca rhyolitic tephras erupted from Ilopango caldera. Most of the triggered landslides were relatively small, shallow failures, but two large landslides occurred that blocked the El Desagüe River and the Jiboa River. The two earthquakes triggered similar types of landslides , but the distribution of triggered landslides differed because of different earthquake source parameters. The largemagnitude, deep, offshore earthquake triggered broadly scattered landslides over a large region, whereas the shallow, moderate-magnitude earthquake centered within the country triggered a much smaller, denser concentration of landslides . These results are significant in the context of seismic-hazard mitigation for various earthquake scenarios.

Special Paper of the Geological Society of America↗
USGS1969

Aeromagnetic investigation of crustal structure for a strip across the western United States

This report represents part of a larger study undertaken to interpret the gross features of the earth's crust by aeromagnetic methods. The larger survey covers a 100-mile-wide strip along a great circle arc from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, California. The area considered extends from about 200 miles east of the Rocky Mountains to 150 miles west of the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Inferences on gross structure and lithology are made from the magnetic patterns and trends shown on the map. At the continental margin, the magnetic data strongly suggest that the oceanic crust becomes much more deeply buried as the continent is approached. A large magnetic anomaly extending northwestward along the center of the Great Valley is probably caused by mafic intrusive rocks.

California, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, Ut↗
USGS2014

Stable isotope (δ 18 O and δ 2 H) data for precipitation, stream water, and groundwater in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea (18.2 °N, 66.3 °W), with the Atlantic Ocean on its northern coast. The U.S. Geological Survey’s Water, Energy, and Biogeochemical Budgets (WEBB) program study area in which most of these data were collected comprises the El Yunque National Forest and surrounding area of eastern Puerto Rico. Samples were collected in two forested watersheds, the Rio Mameyes and the Rio Icacos/Rio Blanco, on opposite sides of a ridge in the Luquillo Mountains on the eastern end of the island (fig. 1). Elevation in both watersheds ranges from sea level to approximately 1,000 meters (m). Near sea level, land use is mixed pasture, moist forest, and residential, grading to completely forested within the boundaries of El Yunque National Forest. Forest type changes with elevation from tabonuco to palo colorado to sierra palm to cloud forest above approximately 950 m (Murphy and others, 2012). The Rio Mameyes watershed is oriented north-northeast, and the basin is underlain by volcaniclastic bedrock (basaltic to andesitic volcanic sandstone/mudstone/conglomerate/breccia). The Rio Icacos/Rio Blanco watershed is oriented south-southeast. The Rio Icacos is one of the headwaters of the Rio Blanco and is underlain by quartz diorite. The lower Rio Blanco basin is underlain by andesitic volcaniclastic bedrock. This report also contains a long-term rain isotope dataset from the San Agustin site, in north-central Puerto Rico (fig. 1). Puerto Rico has a tropical climate dominated by easterly trade winds, and seasonal climate patterns affect the hydrology of the study area. The summer wet season is characterized by convective precipitation from tropical easterly waves, troughs, and cyclonic low-pressure systems, including tropical storms and hurricanes; in contrast, the drier winter season is characterized by trade-wind showers and frontal systems. The highest single-event rainfall totals tend to be associated with tropical storms, hurricanes, and cold fronts, although frequent low-intensity orographic showers occur throughout the year in the mountains. The stable isotope signatures of rainfall (δ 2 H and δ 18 O) are broadly correlated with the weather type that produced the rainfall (Scholl and others, 2009; Scholl and Murphy, 2014).

El Yunque National Forest;Luquillo Mountains;Rio B↗
USGS2016

Bacterial community diversity of the deep-sea octocoral Paramuricea placomus

Compared to tropical corals, much less is known about deep-sea coral biology and ecology. Although the microbial communities of some deep-sea corals have been described, this is the first study to characterize the bacterial community associated with the deep-sea octocoral, Paramuricea placomus . Samples from five colonies of P. placomus were collected from Baltimore Canyon (379–382 m depth) in the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of the United States of America. DNA was extracted from the coral samples and 16S rRNA gene amplicons were pyrosequenced using V4-V5 primers. Three samples sequenced deeply (>4,000 sequences each) and were further analyzed. The dominant microbial phylum was Proteobacteria, but other major phyla included Firmicutes and Planctomycetes. A conserved community of bacterial taxa held in common across the three P. placomus colonies was identified, comprising 68–90% of the total bacterial community depending on the coral individual. The bacterial community of P. placomus does not appear to include the genus Endozoicomonas , which has been found previously to be the dominant bacterial associate in several temperate and tropical gorgonians. Inferred functionality suggests the possibility of nitrogen cycling by the core bacterial community.

PeerJ↗
USGS1976

Fracturing and subsidence of the land surface caused by the withdrawal of ground water in the Milford area, Utah

Fracturing and subsidence of the land surface in the Milford area of Utah have resulted from the decline of water levels due to pumping in unconsolidated deposits of Quaternary age. To the writers' knowledge, these are the first such effects of ground-water withdrawal reported in Utah. The fracturing is in an area about 1 mile (1.6 km) wide and 11 miles (18 km) long near Milford, in an unsaturated clay-silt zone (locally peaty at top) in the upper part of the principal ground-water reservoir. The fractures range in length from several feet to more than 100 feet (30 m), and their maximum measured depth in 1972 was 4 feet (1.2 m). Land subsidence in the Milford area is demonstrated by three lines of evidence: (1) collapse structures, (2) well casings that protrude higher above the land surface than when first placed in the borehole, and (3) lower elevations at National Ocean Survey (formerly U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey) bench marks in 1970 than in 1908. This evidence shows that land subsidence in the Milford area is of two types, each having a different origin. One type has a near-surface origin in the clay-silt zone in the upper part of the principal groundwater reservoir, and the other is in the lower artesian aquifers of the principal ground-water reservoir. The amount of observed subsidence ranges from 0.05 foot (0.015 m) at the bench mark at Read to about 6 feet (1.8 m) at collapse structures in the Hay Springs area.

Utah↗
USGS1974

Time of travel and dye dosage for an irrigation canal system near Duchesne, Utah

Fracturing and subsidence of the land surface in the Milford area oil Utah have resulted from the decline of water levels due to pumping in unconsolidated deposits of Quaternary age. To the writers’ knowledge, these are the first such effects of ground-water withdrawal reported in Utah. The fracturing is in an area about 1 mile (1.6 km) wide and 11 miles (18 km) long near Milford, in an unsaturated clay-silt zone (locally peaty at top) in the upper part of the principal ground-water reservoir. The fractures range in length from several feet to more than 100 feet (30 m), and their maximum measured depth in 1972 was 4 feet (1.2 m). Land subsidence in the Milford area is demonstrated by three lines of evidence: (1) collapse structures, (2) well casings that protrude higher above the land surface than when first placed in the borehole, and (3) lower elevations at National Ocean Survey (formerly U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey) bench marks in 1970 than in 1908. This evidence shows that land subsidence in the Milford area is of two types, each having a different origin. One type has a near-surface origin in the clay-silt zone in the upper part of the principal groundwater reservoir, and the other is in the lower artesian aquifers of the principal ground-water reservoir. The amount of observed subsidence ranges from 0.05 foot (0.015 m) at the bench mark at Read to about 6 feet (1.8 m) at collapse structures in the Hay Springs area.

Utah↗
USGS2025

A psychologically wise intervention to inform relational organizing in the face of climate and ocean change

Widespread climate action is broadly recognized as necessary to reduce climate change impacts on oceans (“ocean change”), but threats to ocean ecosystems are commonly perceived as distant, irrelevant, and unchangeable. Communicating about ocean change, therefore, requires message framing strategies targeting evidence-based psychological precursors to behavior. In a pre-registered case study of coastal visitors in Oregon, United States ( n = 2414), we tested the influence of psychologically wise message about ocean change on climate action intentions. We primarily focused on influencing relational organizing: people’s willingness to encourage others to act. A behavior-specific message targeting relational organizing efficacy beliefs significantly but weakly increased intentions for relational organizing regarding ocean change compared to a control. Neither a connectedness to coast (place-based) message nor an ocean acidification (proximate threat-based) message had detectable effects on intentions. Our results suggest that targeting relational organizing efficacy may increase climate action intentions for the protection of coastal ecosystems.

npj Ocean Sustainability↗
USGS1994

The Loma Prieta, California, earthquake of October 17, 1989: Tectonic processes and models

If there is a single theme that unifies the diverse papers in this chapter, it is the attempt to understand the role of the Loma Prieta earthquake in the context of the earthquake 'machine' in northern California: as the latest event in a long history of shocks in the San Francisco Bay region, as an incremental contributor to the regional deformation pattern, and as a possible harbinger of future large earthquakes. One of the surprises generated by the earthquake was the rather large amount of uplift that occurred as a result of the reverse component of slip on the southwest-dipping fault plane. Preearthquake conventional wisdom had been that large earthquakes in the region would probably be caused by horizontal, right-lateral, strike-slip motion on vertical fault planes. In retrospect, the high topography of the Santa Cruz Mountains and the elevated marine terraces along the coast should have provided some clues. With the observed ocean retreat and the obvious uplift of the coast near Santa Cruz that accompanied the earthquake, Mother Nature was finally caught in the act. Several investigators quickly saw the connection between the earthquake uplift and the long-term evolution of the Santa Cruz Mountains and realized that important insights were to be gained by attempting to quantify the process of crustal deformation in terms of Loma Prieta-type increments of northward transport and fault-normal shortening.

California↗
USGS2013

National assessment of shoreline change: historical shoreline change along the Pacific Northwest coast

Beach erosion is a chronic problem along most open ocean shores of the United States. As coastal populations continue to increase and infrastructure is threatened by erosion, there is increased demand for accurate information regarding past and present trends and rates of shoreline movement. There is also a need for a comprehensive analysis of shoreline movement that is consistent from one coastal region to another. To meet these national needs, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is conducting an analysis of historical shoreline changes along the open-ocean sandy shores of the conterminous United States and parts of Hawaii, Alaska, and the Great Lakes. One purpose of this work is to develop standard, repeatable methods for mapping and analyzing shoreline movement so that periodic, systematic, and internally consistent updates regarding coastal erosion and land loss can be made nationally. In the case of the analysis of shoreline change in the Pacific Northwest (PNW), the shoreline is the interpreted boundary between the ocean water surface and the sandy beach. This report on the PNW coasts of Oregon and Washington is the seventh in a series of regionally focused reports on historical shoreline change. Previous investigations include analyses and descriptive reports of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (Morton and others, 2004), the southeastern Atlantic (Morton and Miller, 2005), the sandy shorelines (Hapke and others, 2006) and coastal cliffs (Hapke and Reid, 2007) of California, the New England and mid-Atlantic coasts (Hapke and others, 2011), and parts of the Hawaii coast (Fletcher and others, 2012). Like the earlier reports in this series, this report summarizes the methods of analysis, interprets the results of the analysis, provides explanations regarding long- and short-term trends and rates of shoreline change, and describes how different coastal communities are responding to coastal erosion. This report differs from the early USGS reports in the series in that those shoreline change analyses incorporated only four total shorelines to represent specific time periods. This assessment of the PNW incorporates all available shorelines that meet minimum quality standards for resolution and positional accuracy. Shoreline change evaluations are based on a comparison of historical shoreline positions digitized from maps or aerial photographic data sources with recent shorelines, at least one of which is derived from lidar surveys. The historical shorelines cover a variety of time periods ranging from the 1800s through the 1980s, whereas the lidar shoreline is from 2002. Long-term rates of change are calculated using all available shoreline data and short-term rates of change are calculated using the lidar shoreline and the historical shoreline that will produce an assessment for a 15- to 35-year period. The rates of change presented in this report represent conditions up to the date of only the most recent shoreline data and therefore are not intended for predicting future shoreline positions or rates of change. The PNW coast was subdivided into eight analysis regions for the purpose of graphically reporting regional trends in shoreline change rates. The average rate of long-term shoreline change for the entire PNW coast was 0.9 meter per year (m/yr) of progradation with an uncertainty of 0.07 m/yr. This rate is based on 8,823 individual transects, of which 36 percent was determined to be eroding. Long-term shoreline change was generally more progradational in Washington than in Oregon. This is primarily due to the influence of the Columbia River and human perturbations to the natural system, particularly the construction of jetties at both the mouth of the Columbia River and at Grays Harbor, Washington. The majority of the beaches in southwestern Washington have responded to these large-scale engineered structures by experiencing dramatic beach progradation during the past century. Although these beaches are still responding to the human effects, in several locations beaches that had been rapidly prograding are now either prograding at a slower rate or eroding. The average rate of short-term shoreline change in the PNW was also progradational at a rate of 0.9 m/yr with an uncertainty of 0.03 m/yr. This rate is based on 9,087 individual transects, of which 44 percent was determined to be eroding. Similar to the results of the long-term shoreline change analysis, the shorelines in Washington were typically more progradational than those in Oregon in the short term. However, many stretches of coast in Oregon are either less accretional, changed from accretional to erosional, or more erosional when comparing the long- and short-term rate calculations. In the long and short term, there are significantly different historical shoreline change trends for beaches deriving their modern sediments from the Columbia River in southwestern Washington and northwestern Oregon, and beaches elsewhere in the PNW. The majority of shorelines in Oregon and in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula are not influenced by the human effects to the Columbia River littoral cell and typically have not experienced the human-induced century-scale trends apparent in southwestern Washington and northwestern Oregon. An increase in erosion hazards in much of Oregon may be related to the effects of sea-level rise and increasing storm wave heights. Of importance, particularly in the short term, is the alongshore variability in land uplift rates due to tectonics, which results in an alongshore varying rate of relative sea level rise that appears to at least partially control the regional variability in short-term shoreline change rates. Other climate related processes, such as the occurrence of major El Niño events, also significantly affect the shoreline changes in the region. Major El Niño events elevate monthly mean sea levels by tens of centimeters throughout the winter and produce a shift in the storm tracks, resulting in alongshore redistributions in sand volumes on the beaches, leading to hotspot beach erosion and property losses north of headlands and tidal inlets to bays and estuaries. There are limited modern-day sources of sand to Oregon’s beaches, with much of the sand being relict in having arrived thousands of years ago at a time of lowered sea levels when headlands did not prevent the alongshore movement of the beach sediments, the result being that many beaches today are deficient in sand volumes and therefore do not provide sufficient buffer protection to backshore properties during winter storms.

Oregon;Washington↗
USGS1996

Coastal hazards: hurricanes, tsunamis, coastal erosion

Oceans are the largest geographic feature on the surface of the Earth, covering approximately 70% of the planet's surface. As a result, oceans have a tremendous impact on the Earth, its climate, and its inhabitants. The coast or shoreline is the boundary between ocean environments and land habitats. By the year 2025, it is estimated that approximately two-thirds of the world's population will be living within 200 kilometers of a coast. In many ways, we treat the coast just like any other type of land area, as a safe and stable place to live and play. However, coastal environments are dynamic, and they constantly change in response to natural processes and to human activities.

General Information Product↗
USGS2008

Preliminary results of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission collaborative research program to assess tsunami hazard for nuclear power plants on the Atlantic and gulf coasts

In response to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US NRC) initiated a long-term research program to improve understanding of tsunami hazard levels for nuclear facilities in the United States. For this effort, the US NRC organized a collaborative research program with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other key researchers for the purpose of assessing tsunami hazard on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States. The initial phase of this work consisted principally of collection, interpretation, and analysis of available offshore data and information. Necessarily, the US NRC research program includes both seismic- and landslide-based tsunamigenic sources in both the near and the far fields. The inclusion of tsunamigenic landslides, an important category of sources that impact tsunami hazard levels for the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts over the long time periods of interest to the US NRC is a key difference between this program and most other tsunami hazard assessment programs. Although only a few years old, this program is already producing results that both support current US NRC activities and look toward the long-term goal of probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment. This paper provides a summary of results from several areas of current research. An overview of the broader US NRC research program is provided in a companion paper in this conference.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1995

Sea otters in the northern Pacific Ocean

About 250 years ago sea otters ( Enhydra lutris ) were distributed continuously from central Baja California, north and west along the Pacific Rim to Machatka Peninsula in Russia, and south along the Kuril Island to northern Japan (Kenyon 1969; Fig. 1a). Several hundred thousand sea otters may have occurred in the north Pacific region when commercial hunting began in the 18th century (Riedman and Estes 1990). At least two attributes of the sea otter have influenced humans, likely for as long as they have resided together along the coast of the north Pacific Ocean. First, sea otters rely on a dense fur, among the finest in the world, for insulation in the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean. The demand for sea otter fur led to their near extinction in the 19th century. The fur harvest, begun about 1740 and halted by international treaty in 1911, left surviving colonies, each likely numbering less than a few hundred animals, in California, south-central Alaska, and the Aleutian, Medney, and Kuril Islands (Fig. 1a). These individuals provided the nucleus for the recovery of the species. Today more than 100,000 sea otters occur throughout about 75% of their original range (fig. 1b). Immigration has resulted in near-complete occupation of the Aleutian and Kuril archipelagos and the Alaska peninsula. Successful translocations have resulted in viable populations in southeast Alaska, Washington, and British Columbia. Large amounts of unoccupied habitat remain along the coasts of Russia, Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The second potential source of conflict between sea otters and humans is that sea otters prey on and often limit some benthic invertebrate populations. Because some of these invertebrates are aso used by humans (Estes and VanBlaricom 1985), human perceptions about the effects of sea otter foraging on invertebrates sometimes differ. By limiting populations of herbivorous invertebrates ( e.g. , sea urchins [Echinoidea]) otters help maintain the integrity of kelp forest communities. At the same time, sea otter predation on other marine invertebrates can lead to direct competition with humans for resources. These interactions add complex dimensions to the conservation and management of sea otters, in large part because of wide-ranging social, ecological, and economic consequences of sea otter foraging. Long-term data on abundance and distribution are available for relatively few sea otter populations. Here we summarize such data from three populations: Being Island, Russia; Prince William Sound, Alaska; and Olympic Peninsula, Washington. The Bering Island population resulted from natural emigration and represents complete recovery. Prince William Sounds represents near recovery of a remnant population, whereas the Washington population was established via translocations from Alaska and is just beginning to recover. We will compare growth rates and current status among these populations. Because of its unique status and growth characteristics, the California sea otter is not treated in this article.

Book chapter↗
USGS2013

The significance of ultra-refracted surface gravity waves on sheltered coasts, with application to San Francisco Bay

Ocean surface gravity waves propagating over shallow bathymetry undergo spatial modification of propagation direction and energy density, commonly due to refraction and shoaling. If the bathymetric variations are significant the waves can undergo changes in their direction of propagation (relative to deepwater) greater than 90° over relatively short spatial scales. We refer to this phenomenon as ultra-refraction. Ultra-refracted swell waves can have a powerful influence on coastal areas that otherwise appear to be sheltered from ocean waves. Through a numerical modeling investigation it is shown that San Francisco Bay, one of the earth's largest and most protected natural harbors, is vulnerable to ultra-refracted ocean waves, particularly southwest incident swell. The flux of wave energy into San Francisco Bay results from wave transformation due to the bathymetry and orientation of the large ebb tidal delta, and deep, narrow channel through the Golden Gate. For example, ultra-refracted swell waves play a critical role in the intermittent closure of the entrance to Crissy Field Marsh, a small restored tidal wetland located on the sheltered north-facing coast approximately 1.5 km east of the Golden Gate Bridge.

California↗
USGS2006

National Assessment of Shoreline Change Part 3: Historical Shoreline Change and Associated Coastal Land Loss Along Sandy Shorelines of the California Coast

Beach erosion is a chronic problem along many open-ocean shores of the United States. As coastal populations continue to grow and community infrastructures are threatened by erosion, there is increased demand for accurate information regarding past and present trends and rates of shoreline movement. There is also a need for a comprehensive analysis of shoreline movement that is consistent from one coastal region to another. To meet these national needs, the U.S. Geological Survey is conducting an analysis of historical shoreline changes along open-ocean sandy shores of the conterminous United States and parts of Hawaii and Alaska. One purpose of this work is to develop standard repeatable methods for mapping and analyzing shoreline movement so that periodic updates regarding coastal erosion and land loss can be made nationally that are systematic and internally consistent. In the case of this study, the shoreline being measured is the boundary between the ocean water surface and the sandy beach. This report on the California Coast represents the first of two reports on long-term sandy shoreline change for the western U.S., the second of which will include the coast of the Pacific NW, including Oregon and Washington. A report for the Gulf of Mexico shoreline was completed in 2004 and is available at: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1043/. This report summarizes the methods of analysis, interprets the results, provides explanations regarding long-term and short-term trends and rates of change, and describes how different coastal communities are responding to coastal erosion. Shoreline change evaluations are based on comparing three historical shorelines digitized from maps, with a recent shoreline derived from lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) topographic surveys. The historical shorelines generally represent the following periods: 1800s, 1920s-1930s, and 1950s-1970s, whereas the lidar shoreline is from 1998-2002. Long-term rates of change are calculated using all four shorelines (1800s to lidar shoreline), whereas short-term rates of change are calculated for only the most recent period (1950s-1970s to lidar shoreline). The rates of change presented in this report represent past conditions and therefore are not intended for predicting future shoreline positions or rates of change. Due to the geomorphology of the California Coast (rocky coastline instead of beach) as well as to data gaps in some areas, this report presents beach erosion rates for 45% of California's 1100 km of coast. The average rate of long-term shoreline change for the State of California was 0.2?0.1 m/yr, an accretional trend. This is based on shoreline change rates averaged from 14,562 individual transects, of which 40% were eroding. Of the transects on which the shoreline was eroding, the long-term erosion rates were generally lowest in Southern California where coastal engineering projects have greatly altered the natural shoreline movement. On a regional scale, long-term accretion rates were either equal to (Central California) or greater than (Northern and Southern California) the long-term erosion rates, yielding the net accretional trend for the entire state. This accretional trend is most likely due to changes in the large volumes of sediment that are added to the system from large rivers and to the impact from coastal engineering and beach nourishment projects. The average rate of short-term shoreline change for the state was erosional. The net short-term rate as averaged along 16,142 transects was -0.2?0.4 m/yr. Of the transects used to measure short-term change, 66% had erosional trends. In addition erosion rates were higher in the short-term period, possibly related to the localized artificial nourishment that occurred over much of the 20th century but that has recently slowed or stopped (Flick, 1993; Wiegel, 1994). Short-term accretion rates were highest in Northern California where the overall magnitudes of shoreline change are systematically higher than in Central and Southern California. The most stable (low erosion and accretion rates) California beaches were most commonly found in Central California. Seawalls and/or riprap revetments have been constructed in all three sections of California, although many of these structures were built to protect houses and infrastructures from the erosion of coastal cliffs and bluffs rather than to protect against long-term beach erosion. California permits shoreline stabilization structures where homes, buildings or other community infrastructure are imminently threatened by erosion. A second California report that is following this publication will include analyses and reports on long-term coastal cliff erosion, as this hazard is of equal or greater concern to coastal communities in many areas along the California Coast.

Open-File Report↗
USGS2023

Ice and ocean constraints on early human migrations into North America along the Pacific Coast

Founding populations of the first Americans likely occupied parts of Beringia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The timing, pathways, and modes of their southward transit remain unknown, but blockage of the interior route by North American ice sheets between ~26 and 14 cal kyr BP (ka) favors a coastal route during this period. Using models and paleoceanographic data from the North Pacific, we identify climatically favorable intervals when humans could have plausibly traversed the Cordilleran coastal corridor during the terminal Pleistocene. Model simulations suggest that northward coastal currents strengthened during the LGM and at times of enhanced freshwater input, making southward transit by boat more difficult. Repeated Cordilleran glacial-calving events would have further challenged coastal transit on land and at sea. Following these events, ice-free coastal areas opened and seasonal sea ice was present along the Alaskan margin until at least 15 ka. Given evidence for humans south of the ice sheets by 16 ka and possibly earlier, we posit that early people may have taken advantage of winter sea ice that connected islands and coastal refugia. Marine ice-edge habitats offer a rich food supply and traversing coastal sea ice could have mitigated the difficulty of traveling southward in watercraft or on land over glaciers. We identify 24.5 to 22 ka and 16.4 to 14.8 ka as environmentally favorable time periods for coastal migration, when climate conditions provided both winter sea ice and ice-free summer conditions that facilitated year-round marine resource diversity and multiple modes of mobility along the North Pacific coast.

Pacific Coast↗
USGS2009

The observed relationship between wave conditions and beach response, Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA

Understanding how sandy beaches respond to storms is critical for effective sediment management and developing successful erosion mitigation efforts. However, only limited progress has been made in relating observed beach changes to wave conditions, with one of the major limiting factors being the lack of temporally dense beach topography and nearshore wave data in most studies. This study uses temporally dense beach topographic and offshore wave data to directly link beach response and wave forcing with generally good results. Ocean Beach is an open coast high-energy sandy beach located in San Francisco, CA, USA. From April 2004 through the end of 2008, 60 three-dimensional topographic beach surveys were conducted on approximately a monthly basis, with more frequent “short-term surveys during the winters of 2005-06 and 2006-07. Shoreline position data from the short-term surveys show good correlation with offshore wave height, period, and direction averaged over several days prior to the survey (mean R*=0.54 for entire beach). There is, however, considerable alongshore variation in model performance, with R- values ranging from 0.81 to 0.19 for individual sections of the beach. After wave height, the direction of wave approach was the most important factor in determining the response of the shoreline, followed by wave period. Our results indicate that an empirical predictive model of beach response to wave conditions at Ocean Beach is possible with frequent beach mapping and wave data, and that such a model could be useful to coastal managers.

California↗
USGS2018

Size, growth, and density data for shallow-water sea urchins from Mexico to the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, 1956–2016

Size, growth, and density have been studied for North American Pacific coast sea urchins Strongylocentrotus purpuratus , S. droebachiensis, S. polyacanthus , Mesocentrotus (Strongylocentrotus) franciscanus , Lytechinus pictus , Centrostephanus coronatus , and Arbacia stellata by various workers at diverse sites and for varying lengths of time from 1956 to present. Numerous peer-reviewed publications have used some of these data but some data have appeared only in graduate theses or the gray literature. There also are data that have never appeared outside original data sheets. Motivation for studies has included fisheries management and environmental monitoring of sewer and power plant outfalls as well as changes associated with disease epidemics. Studies also have focused on kelp restoration, community effects of sea otters, basic sea urchin biology, and monitoring. The data sets presented here are a historical record of size, density, and growth for a common group of marine invertebrates in intertidal and nearshore environments that can be used to test hypotheses concerning future changes associated with fisheries practices, shifts of predator distributions, climate and ecosystem changes, and ocean acidification along the Pacific Coast of North America and islands of the north Pacific.

Pacific Coast↗