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Central & Southern California

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These are results 1 through 25 of 135 matches.

General Information
Research Vessel Parke Snavely

Description: The USGS Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team, located in Santa Cruz and Menlo Park, CA, acquired Research Vessel Parke Snavely in November 2007. R/V Snavely is a 34� Armstrong Catamaran with an open stern and an aluminum hull. The boat is named after Parke D. Snavely, Jr. (1919 - 2003), a pioneer of marine geology research at USGS. R/V Snavely is principally a seafloor mapping boat, used in many seafloor and nearshore operations.
updated: 2009-07-02 pages include:

Research Project
USGS Coral Reef Studies

Description: Coral Reef Studies conducted in Hawaii, Florida and California.
updated: 2009-06-24 pages include:

General Information
Staff Information for Western CMG

Description: Staff list with contact information and brief descriptions of work activities for USGS Western Region Coastal and Marine Geology staff, contractors, and volunteers.
updated: 2009-06-22 pages include:

Publication
General Information Product 57: South San Francisco Bay, California

Description: The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the California Coastal Conservancy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, mapped the floor of south San Francisco Bay and adjoining land using single-beam sonar and airborne lidar (light detection and ranging). To learn more, visit http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/2007/2987/.
updated: 2009-06-17 pages include:

Educational Materials
Tsunami and Earthquake Research at the USGS

Description: General information on how earthquakes generate tsunamis and summaries of tsunami research.
updated: 2009-06-10 pages include:

Publication
General Information Product 87: Sea Floor off San Diego, California

Description: Ocean-floor image generated from multibeam-bathymetry data acquired by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS); Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Scripps Institution of Oceanography; California State University, Monterey Bay; and Fugro Pelagos. To learn more, visit http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/2007/2959/.
updated: 2009-06-03 pages include:

Publication
Open-File Report 2009-1100: High-Resolution Seismic-Reflection and Marine Magnetic Data Along the Hosgri Fault Zone, Central California

Description: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected high-resolution shallow seismic-reflection and marine magnetic data in June 2008 in the offshore areas between the towns of Cayucos and Pismo Beach, Calif., from the nearshore (~6-m depth) to just west of the Hosgri Fault Zone (~200-m depth). These data are in support of the California State Waters Mapping Program and the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the U.S. Geological Survey. Seismic-reflection and marine magnetic data were acquired aboard the R/V Parke Snavely, using a SIG 2Mille minisparker seismic source and a Geometrics G882 cesium-vapor marine magnetometer. More than 550 km of seismic and marine magnetic data was collected simultaneously along shore-perpendicular transects spaced 800 m apart, with an additional 220 km of marine magnetometer data collected across the Hosgri Fault Zone, resulting in spacing locally as smallas 400 m. This report includes maps of the seismic-survey sections, linked to Google Earth� software, and digital data files showing images of each transect in SEG-Y, JPEG, and TIFF formats, as well as preliminary gridded marine-magnetic-anomaly and residual-magnetic-anomaly (shallow magnetic source) maps.
updated: 2009-05-29 pages include:

Publication
Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5094: Connections Among the Spatial and Temporal Structures in Tidal Currents, Internal Bores, and Surficial Sediment Distributions Over the Shelf off Palos Verdes, California

Description: The topography of the Continental Shelf in the central portion of the Southern California Bight has rapid variations over relatively small spatial scales. The width of the shelf off the Palos Verdes peninsula, just northwest of Los Angeles, California, is only 1 to 3 km. About 7 km southeast of the peninsula, the shelf within San Pedro Bay widens to about 20 km. In 2000, the Los Angeles County Sanitation District began deploying a dense array of moorings in this complex region of the central Southern California Bight to monitor local circulation patterns. Moorings were deployed at 13 sites on the Palos Verdes shelf and within the northwestern portion of San Pedro Bay. At each site, a mooring supported a string of thermistors and an adjacent bottom platform housed an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler. These instruments collected vertical profiles of current and temperature data continuously for one to two years. The variable bathymetry in the region causes rapid changes in the amplitudes and spatial structures of barotropic tidal currents, internal tidal currents, and in the associated nonlinear baroclinic currents that occur at approximate tidal frequencies. The largest barotropic tidal constituent is M2, the principal semidiurnal tide. The amplitude of this tidal current changes over fairly short along-shelf length scales. Tidal-current amplitudes are largest in the transition region between the two shelves; they increase from about 5 cm/s over the northern San Pedro shelf to nearly 10 cm/s on the southern portion of the Palos Verdes Shelf. Tidal-current amplitudes are then reduced to less than 2 cm/s over the very narrow section of the northern Palos Verdes shelf that lies just 6 km upcoast of the southern sites. Models suggest that the amplitude of the barotropic M2 tidal currents, which propagate toward the northwest primarily as a Kelvin wave, is adjusting to the short topographic length scales in the region. Semidiurnal sea-level oscillations are, as expected, independent of these topographic variations; they have a uniform amplitude and phase structure over the entire region. Because the cross-shelf angle of the seabed over most of the Palos Verdes shelf is 1 to 3 degrees, which is critical for the local generation and/or enhancement of nonlinear characteristics in semidiurnal internal tides, some internal tidal-current events have strong asymmetric current oscillations that are enhanced near the seabed. Near-bottom currents in these events are directed primarily offshore with amplitudes that exceed 30 cm/s. The spatial patterns in these energetic near-bottom currents have fairly short-length scales. They are largest over the inner shelf and in the transition region between the Palos Verdes and San Pedro shelves. This spatial pattern is similar to that found in the barotropic tidal currents. Because these baroclinic currents have an approximate tidal frequency, an asymmetric vertical structure, and a somewhat stable phase, they can produce a non-zero depth-mean flow for periods of a few months. These baroclinic currents can interact with the barotropic tidal current and cause an apparent increase (or decrease) in the estimated barotropic tidal-current amplitude. The apparent amplitude of the barotropic tidal current may change by 30 to 80 percent or more in a current record that is less than three months long. The currents and surficial sediments in this region are in dynamic equilibrium in that the spatial patterns in bottom stresses generated by near-bed currents from surface tides, internal tides, and internal bores partly control the spatial patterns in the local sediments. Coarser sediments are found in the regions with enhanced bottom stresses (that is, over the inner shelf and in the region between the Palos Verdes and San Pedro shelves). Finer sediments are found over the northwestern portion of the Palos Verdes shelf, where near-bottom currents are relatively weak. The nonlinear asymmetries in the internal tidal-period current oscillations cause a net transport of suspended material along and off the shelf, reinforcing the mean flow patterns that also carry sediment either into Santa Monica Bay or offshore and onto the adjacent slope.
updated: 2009-05-28 pages include:

Publication
Open-File Report 2009-1073: The Framework of a Coastal Hazards Model�A Tool for Predicting the Impact of Severe Storms

Description: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project in Southern California (Jones and others, 2007) is a five-year project (FY2007-FY2011) integrating multiple USGS research activities with the needs of external partners, such as emergency managers and land-use planners, to produce products and information that can be used to create more disaster-resilient communities. The hazards being evaluated include earthquakes, landslides, floods, tsunamis, wildfires, and coastal hazards. For the Coastal Hazards Task of the Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project in Southern California, the USGS is leading the development of a modeling system for forecasting the impact of winter storms threatening the entire Southern California shoreline from Pt. Conception to the Mexican border. The modeling system, run in real-time or with prescribed scenarios, will incorporate atmospheric information (that is, wind and pressure fields) with a suite of state-of-the-art physical process models (that is, tide, surge, and wave) to enable detailed prediction of currents, wave height, wave runup, and total water levels. Additional research-grade predictions of coastal flooding, inundation, erosion, and cliff failure will also be performed. Initial model testing, performance evaluation, and product development will be focused on a severe winter-storm scenario developed in collaboration with the Winter Storm Working Group of the USGS Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project in Southern California. Additional offline model runs and products will include coastal-hazard hindcasts of selected historical winter storms, as well as additional severe winter-storm simulations based on statistical analyses of historical wave and water-level data. The coastal-hazards model design will also be appropriate for simulating the impact of storms under various sea level rise and climate-change scenarios. The operational capabilities of this modeling system are designed to provide emergency planners with the critical information they need to respond quickly and efficiently and to increase public safety and mitigate damage associated with powerful coastal storms. For instance, high resolution local models will predict detailed wave heights, breaking patterns, and current strengths for use in warning systems for harbor-mouth navigation and densely populated coastal regions where beach safety is threatened. The offline applications are intended to equip coastal managers with the information needed to manage and allocate their resources effectively to protect sections of coast that may be most vulnerable to future severe storms.
updated: 2009-05-26 pages include:

Map
National Seafloor Mapping and Characterization

Description: Images of the sea floor off the coasts of California, Hawaii, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, and Washington; images of lake floor of Lake Michigan, Crater Lake, Lake Tahoe. Backscatter and swath bathymetry, regular and in 3-D view.
updated: 2009-05-11 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
Open-File Report 2009-1029: Coastal processes study of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, California

Description: By Patrick L. Barnard, David L. Revell, Dan Hoover, Jon Warrick, John Brocatus, Amy E. Draut, Pete Dartnell, Edwin Elias, Neomi Mustain, Pat E. Hart, and Holly F. Ryan. The Santa Barbara littoral cell (SBLC) is a complex coastal system with significant management challenges. The coastline ranges broadly in exposure to wave energy, fluvial inputs, hard structures, and urbanization. Geologic influence (structural control) on coastline orientation exerts an important control on local beach behavior, with anthropogenic alterations and the episodic nature of sediment supply and transport also playing important roles.
updated: 2009-03-27 pages include:

Publication
Open-File Report 98-139: Multibeam Data and Socio-Economic Issues in West-Central San Francisco Bay

Description: Recent investigations by the USGS in the San Francisco Bay estuary help address both socio-economic and scientific issues: - How much rock must be trimmed from pinnacles on the bayfloor to provide safe navigation by deep-draft vessels? - What would be the environmental and societal consequences of a large oil spill? - What are the consequences of long-term dredging operations? - What types of bayfloor are important habitats for commercial and recreational fisheries? - What types of sediment cover the bayfloor? - What are the sediment distribution, volume, and rates of transport?
updated: 2008-10-10 pages include:

Research Project
WCMG Coastal Processes Studies

Description: California's beaches and nearshore regions are valuable economic and recreational resources but also provide habitats for numerous sensitive species. During winter storms, the coast represents a potentially dangerous interface between ocean and land, nature and humans. Storms produce high waves, strong currents, and elevated sea level that can rapidly erode beaches and inundate low-lying coastal regions, damaging and/or destroying public and private infrastructure as well as stressing coastal ecosystems. Over longer-time scales (e.g. decadal), persistent erosion exacerbated by the pressures of coastal development, reduction in sediment availability and climate change, can result in severely depleted beaches. The USGS performs research along the California coast to understand the physical processes that control coastal change on time scales from individual storms to decades to support the efforts of local, state and government agencies to make informed coastal management decisions to most effectively preserve and protect this valuable resource.
updated: 2008-09-23 pages include:

Research Project
Southern California Coastal Hazards - USGS WCMG

Description: Southern California Coastal Hazards Study of the USGS Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team
updated: 2008-09-23 pages include:

Publication
Open-File Report 2007-1112, Updated: The National Assessment of Shoreline Change: A GIS Compilation of Vector Cliff Edges and Associated Cliff Erosion Data for the California Coast

Description: USGS report titled, A GIS Compilation of Vector Shorelines and Associated Shoreline Change Data for the Sandy Shorelines of the California Coast; this report contains links to data coverage --GIS-- of shoreline change of sandy shorelines of the California Coast. Version 1.1. The data files in this version have been updated to correct for a projection error. All files and metadata now accurately reference the NAD83 datum.
updated: 2008-09-16 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:

Publication
Open-File Report 2008-1246: High-Resolution Chirp and Mini-Sparker Seismic-Reflection Data From the Southern California Continental Shelf�Gaviota to Mugu Canyon

Description: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected high-resolution shallow seismic-reflection data in September, 2007, and June-July, 2008, from the continental shelf offshore of southern California between Gaviota and Mugu Canyon, in support of the California's State Waters Mapping Program. Data were acquired using SIG 2mille mini-sparker and Edgetech chirp 512 instruments aboard the R/V Zephyr (Sept. 2007) and R/V Parke Snavely (June-July 2008). The survey area spanned approximately 120 km of coastline, and included shore-perpendicular transects spaced 1.0-1.5 km apart that extended offshore to at least the 3-mile limit of State waters, in water depths ranging from 10 m near shore to 300 m near the offshore extent of Mugu and Hueneme submarine canyons. Subbottom acoustic penetration spanned tens to several hundred meters, variable by location. This report includes maps of the surveyed transects, linked to Google Earth� software, as well as digital data files showing images of each transect in SEG-Y, JPEG, and TIFF formats. The images of sediment deposits, tectonic structure, and natural-gas seeps collected during this study provide geologic information that is essential to coastal zone and resource management at Federal, State and local levels, as well as to future research on the sedimentary, tectonic, and climatic record of southern California.
updated: 2008-07-29 pages include:

Publication
Open-File Report 2007-1437: The Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast, Version 2 (UCERF 2)

Description: A USGS, California Geological Survey, and Southern California Earthquake Center joint report: California�s 35 million people live among some of the most active earthquake faults in the United States. Public safety demands credible assessments of the earthquake hazard to maintain appropriate building codes for safe construction and earthquake insurance for loss protection. Seismic hazard analysis begins with an earthquake rupture forecast�a model of probabilities that earthquakes of specified magnitudes, locations, and faulting types will occur during a specified time interval. This report describes a new earthquake rupture forecast for California developed by the 2007 Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities (WGCEP 2007).
updated: 2008-07-11 pages include:

General Information
Contact Information for Western Coastal and Marine Geology

Description: Contact information such as local maps, phone numbers, email addresses and web site adresses for the USGS Western Region Headquarters in Menlo Park, CA
updated: 2008-06-17 pages include:

Publication
Scientific Investigations Map 3007: Views of the Sea Floor in Northern Monterey Bay, California

Description: A sonar survey that produced unprecedented high-resolution images of the sea floor in northern Monterey Bay was conducted in 2005 and 2006. The survey, performed over 14 days by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), consisted of 172 tracklines and over 300 million soundings and covered an area of 12.2 km2 (4.7 mi2). The goals of this survey were to collect high-resolution bathymetry (depth to the sea floor) and acoustic backscatter data (amount of sound energy bounced back from the sea floor, which provides information on sea-floor hardness and texture) from the inner continental shelf. These data will provide a baseline for future change analyses, geologic mapping, sediment- and contaminant-transport studies, benthic-habitat delineation, and numerical modeling efforts. The survey shows that the inner shelf in this area is extremely varied in nature, encompassing flat sandy areas, faults, boulder fields, and complex bedrock ridges that support rich marine ecosystems. Furthermore, many of these complex bedrock ridges form the �reefs� that result in a number of California�s classic surf breaks.
updated: 2008-06-09 pages include:

Research Project
Open-File Report 2007-1271: Seafloor Mapping and Benthic Habitat GIS for Southern California, Volume III - USGS WCMG

Description: This is a description of selected data layers for the Seafloor Mapping and Benthic Habitat GIS for Southern California
updated: 2008-03-06 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:

These are results 1 through 25 of 135 matches.

Coastal and Marine Geology Program > Online Science Resource Locator > Central & Southern California