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Hurricanes & Storms

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As the large populations of coastal areas continue to increase, CMG research seeks to understand the impacts of severe storms on the coastal and nearshore environment. From evaluating the potential hazards posed to life and property to addressing the protection and maintenance of coastal habitats and resources, a better understanding of the forces at work and their potential to cause dramatic change is critical.

Other related USGS websites:
El Ni�o Home Page

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Items below are listed from most recently updated to least recently updated.

These are results 1 through 25 of 87 matches.

Research Project
USGS Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM)

Description: The goal of the USGS Northern Gulf of Mexico project is to understand the evolution of coastal ecosystems on the Northern Gulf Coast, the impact of human activities on these ecosystems, and the vulnerability of ecosystems and human communities to more frequent and more intense hurricanes in the future.
updated: 2009-05-28 pages include:

Research Project
Potential San Francisco Bay Landslides During El Nino

Description: EL Nino - Actual and Potential Landslides in San Francisco Bay Area including fly-bys, photos, maps and animations
updated: 2009-05-06 pages include:

Research Project
Coastal Change Hazards: Hurricanes and Extreme Storms

Description: This project investigates the coastal impacts of hurricanes and extreme storms, such as Hurricanes Isabel (2003), Dennis (1999), Bonnie & Georges (1998), and winter storms, such as those associated with the 1997-98 El Ni�o.
updated: 2009-04-28 pages include:

Publication
Hurricane Ike: Observations and Analysis of Coastal Change

Description: Understanding storm-induced coastal change and forecasting these changes require knowledge of the physical processes associated with the storm and the geomorphology of the impacted coastline. The primary physical processes of interest are the wind field, storm surge, and wave climate. Not only does wind cause direct damage to structures along the coast, but it is ultimately responsible for much of the energy that is transferred to the ocean and expressed as storm surge, mean currents, and large waves. Waves and currents are the processes most responsible for moving sediments in the coastal zone during extreme storm events. Storm surge, the rise in water level due to the wind, barometric pressure, and other factors, allows both waves and currents to attack parts of the coast not normally exposed to those processes.
updated: 2009-04-07 pages include:

Publication
Coastal Change During Hurricane Dennis 2005

Description: Hurricane Dennis made landfall as a Category 3 storm on Santa Rosa Island in the Florida Panhandle on July 10, 2005. Exposed to some of the strongest winds, Santa Rosa Island suffered erosion, as well as severe overwash. A storm surge of 2 m was recorded near Navarre Beach. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) are collaborating in a research project investigating coastal change that occurred as a result of Hurricane Dennis. The USGS acquired still oblique aerial photography both before and after hurricane landfall to better understand the impacts of extreme storms on coastal environments. On Tuesday, July 12, 2005, scientists conducted an aerial photographic survey of Santa Rosa Island, Florida, that was impacted by Hurricane Dennis. The photographs were compared to pre-Dennis photographs taken in July 2001 and after the landfall of Hurricane Ivan in September 2004 to illustrate extreme coastal change. On Santa Rosa Island, the storm eroded dunes and beaches, and overwashed roads. In Navarre Beach, parking lots and roads were covered with sand and dune walkovers damaged or destroyed.
updated: 2009-04-07 pages include:

Publication
Coastal Change During Hurricane Isabel 2003

Description: Hurricane Isabel caused extensive erosion and overwash along the Outer Banks near Cape Hatteras, including the destruction of houses, the erosion of protective sand dunes, and the creation of island breaches. The storm eroded beaches and dunes in Frisco and Hatteras Village, southwest of the Cape. Overwash deposits covered roads and filled homes with sand. The most extensive beach changes were associated with the opening of a new breach about 500 m wide that divided into three separate channels that completely severed the island southwest of Cape Hatteras. The main breach, and a smaller one several kilometers to the south (not shown), occurred at minima in both island elevation and island width.
updated: 2009-04-07 pages include:

Publication
Development of High-Resolution Digital Elevation Products along the Northern Gulf of Mexico Coast

Description: Poster Absract
updated: 2009-03-01 pages include:

Publication
USGS Gulf Coast Science Conference and Florida Integrated Science Center Meeting: Proceedings with Abstracts, October 20-23, 2008, Orlando, Florida

Description: Talks, posters, and abstracts from the USGS Gulf Coast Science Conference and Florida Integrated Science Center Meeting.
updated: 2009-01-29 pages include:

Publication
Scientific Investigations Report 2007-5101: The Coral Reef of South Moloka�i, Hawai�i�Portrait of a Sediment-Threatened Fringing Reef

Description: In this landmark volume, U.S. Geological Survey researchers and their colleagues have developed and applied a remarkably integrated approach to the reefs of Moloka�i, combining geology, oceanography, and biology to provide an in-depth understanding of the processes that have made these reefs grow and that now limit them. They have joined old fashioned natural history of marine animals and plants with study of the geological evolution of the island, hydrology, meteorology, and land-use history, to an arsenal of new methods of remote sensing, including aerial photography, laser ranging, infrared thermal mapping, seismic reflection, in-situ instrumentation to measure chemical parameters of water quality, and direct measurements of the physical driving forces affecting them�such as wave energy, currents, sedimentation, and sediment transport. They provide a level of documentation and insight that has never been available for any reef before.
updated: 2008-11-19 pages include:

Research Project
Coastal Processes: San Francisco Bight Coastal Processes Study - USGS WCMG

Description: San Francisco Bight Coastal Processes Study of the USGS Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team. The USGS is conducting a study that documents and analyzes the processes that control the sand transport and sedimentation patterns of Ocean Beach, a National Park site within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This area encompasses a complicated coastal setting that is impacted by the tidal influence of San Francisco Bay, as well as the southwest and northwest Pacific swell. High-energy conditions at this site have restricted comprehensive field surveys in the past, but recent innovations in field techniques now make it possible to perform detailed analysis of the physical processes operating on high energy coastlines, such as Ocean Beach.
updated: 2008-08-12 pages include:

Research Project
Santa Barbara-Ventura Coastal Processes Study - USGS WCMG

Description: Santa Barbara/Ventura Coastal Processes Study of the USGS Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team. Whereas coastal urban development and infrastructure are largely fixed with respect to location, shoreline and bluff positions can change substantially over time in response to natural processes. These natural coastal changes can damage or undermine urban structures, resulting in substantial property loss for federal, state, local and individual land owners. Urban development can also indirectly influence coastal change by interrupting natural supplies or transport of sediment in littoral cells. Thus, it is important to evaluate the rates, patterns and causes of coastal change to better manage sediment resources and predict change hazards in coastal urban settings. The Santa Barbara and Ventura County coast represents a littoral cell along the California coast extending from (at least) Point Conception to the Mugu submarine canyon. The beaches along this littoral cell are an important economic resource to the region, and there is evidence that shoreline and bluff erosion are impacting these beaches. Coastal change in the Santa Barbara/Ventura region is complicated, however, by the irregular coastline (there are numerous rocky headlands, river deltas and offshore reefs), variability in wave forcing, structures such as harbors, groins, piers, dams and landscape urbanization, variability in tectonic uplift, and limited information on littoral sediment sources. In response to the potential for coastal change, BEACON (Beach Erosion Authority for Clean Oceans and Nourishment) and the City of Carpinteria have provided a combined $700K in funding for USGS WCMG to evaluate the coastal change patterns and processes along the Santa Barbara/Ventura County coast until the end of 2008.
updated: 2008-08-12 pages include:

Research Project
Decision Support for Coastal Science and Management

Description: The Decision Support for Coastal Science and Management project, sponsored by the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program (CMGP) is supporting the creation of new capabilities for the synoptic remote sensing of coastal-marine and terrestrial environments based on aircraft and satellite sensors. These coastal remote-sensing, mapping, and point-monitoring tools constitute a unique integrated package of instrumentation and software that may be deployed in support of appropriately timed and scaled zoning decisions by management authorities in order to conserve and sensibly exploit nearshore coastal and marine ecosystems.
updated: 2008-07-15 pages include:

Publication
Open-File Report 2008-1215: Winds, Waves, Tides, and the Resulting Flow Patterns and Fluxes of Water, Sediment, and Coral Larvae off West Maui, Hawaii

Description: A series of recent studies has focused on the flow patterns and particle fluxes along the coast of West Maui, Hawaii, USA, from Honolua south to Puumana. From those studies a relatively good understanding has emerged of the physical processes that influence the relative amount of suspended sediment in nearshore waters and the circulation patterns that transport sediment and coral larvae along the coast and between islands. This report is a synthesis of our existing knowledge on the nature of flow and transport off West Maui.
updated: 2008-07-02 pages include:

Publication
EAARL First Return Topography�Fire Island National Seashore

Description: Digital map atlas of lidar-derived topography maps for Assateague Island National Seashore
updated: 2008-04-21 pages include:

Publication
EAARL Topography-Gulf Islands National Seashore (GUIS)-Florida

Description: Digital atlas of lidar-derived bare earth topography maps for Gulf Islands National Seashore-Florida
updated: 2008-04-17 pages include:

Publication
USGS-NPS-NASA EAARL Topography - Dry Tortugas National Park

Description: 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 techniques to survey coral reefs for the purposes of habitat mapping, ecological monitoring, change detection, and event assessment (for example: bleaching, hurricanes, disease outbreaks).
updated: 2008-03-24 pages include:

Publication
Geomorphology and Depositional Sub-environments of Assateague Island MD/VA

Description: Geomorphology and Depositional Sub-environments of Assateague Island MD/VA, Open File Report 2007-1388
updated: 2008-03-17 pages include:

Publication
EAARL Topography�Gulf Islands National Seashore

Description: Digital atlas of lidar-derived topography maps for Gulf Islands National Seashore-Mississippi
updated: 2008-03-17 pages include:

Publication
Scientific Investigations Report 2007-5254: Sources, Dispersal, and Fate of Fine Sediment Supplied to Coastal California

Description: We have investigated the sources, dispersal, and fate of fine sediment supplied to California coastal waters in a partnership between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the California Sediment Management Workgroup (CSMW). The purpose of this study was to document the rates and characteristics of these processes so that the State can better manage its coastal resources, including sediment.
updated: 2008-02-29 pages include:

Publication
EAARL Topography - Assateague Island National Seashore (ASIS)

Description: Digital atlas of lidar-derived topography maps for Assateague Island National Seashore
updated: 2008-02-27 pages include:

Map
Vulnerability of National Park Service Beaches to Inundation During a Direct Hurricane Landfall: Fire Island National Seashore

Description: The potential inundation of the beach system at Fire Island NS for Saffir-Simpson Category 1-4 hurricanes.
updated: 2008-02-01 pages include:

Map
Vulnerability of National Park Service Beaches to Inundation During a Direct Hurricane Landfall: Cumberland Island National Seashore

Description: The potential inundation of the beach system at Cumberland Island NS for Saffir-Simpson Category 1-5 hurricanes.
updated: 2008-02-01 pages include:

Map
Vulnerability of National Park Service Beaches to Inundation During a Direct Hurricane Landfall: Cape Lookout National Seashore

Description: The potential inundation of the beach system at Cape Lookout NS for Saffir-Simpson Category 1-5 hurricanes.
updated: 2008-02-01 pages include:

Publication
USGS Professional Paper 1751: Systematic Mapping of Bedrock and Habitats along the Florida Reef Tract--Central Key Largo to Halfmoon Shoal

Description: Systematic Mapping of Bedrock and Habitats along the Florida Reef Tract: Central Key Largo to Halfmoon Shoal (Gulf of Mexico) details the bio/geologic record in the Florida Keys from 325,000 years ago to the present.
updated: 2008-01-23 pages include:

Publication
Habitat and Hydrology: Assessing Biological Resources of the Suwannee River Estuarine System Open-File Report 2007-1382

Description: Habitat and Hydrology: Assessing Biological Resources of the Suwannee River Estuarine System, Open File Report 2007-1382
updated: 2008-01-18 pages include:

These are results 1 through 25 of 87 matches.

Coastal and Marine Geology Program > Online Science Resource Locator > Hurricanes & Storms