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Geology News
Coastal Geology Current Events

Beach sand is much more than just little brown granules. It is comprised of microscopic shells, pieces of coral, tiny gems, mineral fragments, and more. This colorful and interesting slideshow displays the microphotography of Dr. Gary Greenberg.

Mapping the extent of flooding during a cyclone or other tropical storm is very difficult because cloud cover obscures the view of the earth from space. Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed a method of assembling data for improved mapping of inundated areas.

Google launched an advisory group consisting mainly of oceanographers to discuss creating a 3D map of the oceans. Some think that this could be an underwater version of “Google Earth”. A program like that could stimulate a lot of new interest in oceanography.

Houston Satellite Image

Researchers at the University of Houston used advanced radar-like laser technology to map the location of more than 300 surface faults in Harris County, Texas. The new, most accurate map of these faults produced to date, might prove to be valuable to planners and mitigation studies.

By studying the landscape around the Chesapeake, NASA spacecraft such as Landsat, Terra and Aqua are helping land managers figure out how to battle the harmful pollutants that have added to the destruction of the bay’s once legendary productivity. Many of these harmful pollutants come from the Chesapeake Bay’s watershed, an area of about 64,000 square miles that covers parts of six states.

“The Coastal Change Analysis Program is a nationally standardized database of land cover and land change information, developed using remotely sensed imagery, for the coastal regions of the U.S. The Coastal Change Analysis Program is a nationally standardized database of land cover and land change information, developed using remotely sensed imagery, for the coastal regions of the U.S.” Quoted from the CCAP website.

An article on the GEOTIMES website by Nicholas Coch, author of numerous papers and books about environmental geology, explores the possible future of United States coastlines. Climate change, coastal dynamics and population shifts could converge to form a coastal crisis.

Subsidence in large areas of southern Louisiana is occurring at a rate of five to ten centimeters per year. This contributes to a variety of problems which include: sea level rise, shoreline erosion, wetland loss, hurricane vulnerability and more.

The 150-km-long Hudson Shelf Valley is the largest physiographic feature on the mid-Atlantic continental shelf. It is the submerged seaward extension of the ancestral Hudson River drainage system that, has not been filled with sediment. Brian Romans describes it with good illustrations on his blog.

Netherlands Satellite Image

The Dutch have been fighting to hold the sea back for a long time and global climate change is expected to make their job a lot more difficult in the coming years. This article explores what’s ahead for them and how they might respond.

Hurricane Katrina killed or severely damaged 320 million large trees in Gulf Coast forests, which weakened the role the forests play in storing carbon from the atmosphere. The damage has led to these forests releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Tropical Cyclone Sidr is in the north Indian Ocean and is moving towards India and Bangladesh. It is a Category 4 storm thought to be capable of producing a 22 foot high storm surge. Bangladesh and parts of the Indian coast are very flat and a 22 foot surge would cause flooding inland for many miles. Compounding this is the heavy rain expected inland of the surge and that flood runoff could combine with the surge to produce a very serious problem.

Who owns the Arctic Ocean and any resources that might be found beneath those waters? The USGS estimates that up to 25% of the world’s remaining oil and natural gas resource might be held within the seafloor of the Arctic Region. Which nation will control them?

Brian Romans has a another interesting post that features seafloor mapping. This one illustrates how salt tectonics has contributed to the morphology of the continental slope in the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico.

This is a story about a guy who bought an oceanfront cabin with seven acres on the Pacific for $45,000 just two years ago. However, in about three years from now it will be gone - swept away by shoreline erosion. Instead of buying the property he is really paying $9,000/year rent. The article reports that dozens of people have bought land on this shoreline in the past six years.

We added a Google Map at right so you can check out this area after you read the Seattle Times story. Just click the link below the map and it will expand into a large window.

EPA.gov Image

From the article: “The release of sulfur and nitrogen into the atmosphere by power plants and agricultural activities plays a minor role in making the ocean more acidic on a global scale, but the impact is greatly amplified in the shallower waters of the coastal ocean, according to new research by atmospheric and marine chemists.”

USGS Image

Storms on the New Jersey coast can cause tidal flooding and storm surge that cause significant damage. USGS, the New Jersey Department of Transportation and NOAA designed and installed a tide telemetry system to remotely monitor the tide levels using a statewide network of tide gages, weather stations, and stream gages that collect data in real time.

NOAA Image

Tropical Storm Gabrielle is moving towards the coast of North Carolina. It’s outer bands are over the Outer Banks and its center could arrive there on Sunday afternoon. Tropical Storm warnings are in effect for the entire North Carolina coastline and the southeastern coast of Virginia.

Over 2.5 billion gallons of water per day is being lost from the Great Lakes system into the St. Clair River. Now Lake Huron’s water level is four inches lower than it was last year. Impacts if this continues are a loss of wetlands loss, docks needing moved, and ships running aground.

London Landsat Image

The UK Environment Agency recently led a study investigating land and sea level changes across London and the Thames Estuary. The study - based on tide gauge, GPS, gravity, and satellite measurements - shows a general pattern of subsidence of 1-2mm a year across London. The information is critical to the planning of London’s sea defences in the face of climate-driven ocean rise. The region is home to 1.3 million people and has a property value put at more than £80bn. Submitted by Adam Thomas.

USGS Image

The melting of sea ice that protects the Alaska shoreline is resulting in accellerated coastal erosion. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has identified about 30 old oil exploration wells that will soon be in danger of erostion. BLM has plans to plug these wells to prevent contamination.

USGS Image

The rate of coastal erosion on the Arctic coast of Alaska is accelerating. Studies by USGS reveal that the rate has doubled in the past 50 years. Part of this increase is in response to the disappearance of sea ice that used to protect the shoreline from waves and currents.

Two people in Cornwall, UK ventured into a shoreline cave at Trenance Point near Mawgan Porth. While in the cave the tide came in and blocked their exit. Searchers went looking for the pair when they failed to return home. They were found hours later and assisted from the cave. Fortunately they survived the experience but one needed hospital treatment for hypothermia.

NASA Landsat

There is a lot of controversy in Galveston. This low-elevation community on a barrier island has a proposal to build 4000 new housing units and two mid-rise hotels. Geologists who have studied the plans say that it has serious flaws which include topography changes and excavation for artificial lakes and boat channels. The proposal amounts to the largest development in the city’s history.

Even with Al Gore winning an Oscar and the media buzzing about global warming, real estate agents in Southern California say that buyers of low-elevation, at-risk properties are not asking about the imapct of sea level rise. Some beachfront properties sell for millions of dollars and the buyers do not appreciate the potential problems with shoreling real estate.

Netherlands Satellite Image

About 55 percent of the Netherlands is already below sealevel and global warming promises higher sealevels with every passing year. Their vast system of dikes, seawalls and storm-surge barriers is an expensive protection system to keep out the sea. How will the Dutch cope with rising sealevels and steady subsidence - which together could increase the sealevel problem by up to one centimeter per year.

Unesco Image

Researchers at Oregon State University are building a scale model of Seaside, a tourist destination town on the Oregon coast. It is being built at 1/50th scale in a wave simulation tank. They will then model what a 35-foot-tall tsunami will do to the town. Why? The Cascadia subduction zone is just offshore and a large tsunami generated there would strike the coast in only 15 to 20 minutes. They hope to answer questions such as… Should people downtown do a horizontal evacuation and travel inland or should they do a vertical evacuation and head for the upper floors of the town’s taller buildings?

NOAA Image

Beach erosion will wipe out extensive parts of the Cape Hatteras area the next time a large hurricane strikes. A Katrina-size storm could wash away 75% of the North Carolina Outer Banks. When Hurricane Isabel struck the Outer Banks in 2003, the Category 2 hurricane’s 8-foot storm surge and waves removed a stretch of Hatteras Island a third of a mile wide. Imagine what a Category 5 storm could do with 25-foot waves. (Includes a video about the 1999 lighthouse move.)

Damage from earthquakes, floods, subsidence, landslides, expansive soils, and other geologic processes are not covered by the typical homeowners insurance policy. Thousands of people across the United States are learning very expensive geology lessons every year. This makes a strong case for geoscience education, easy access to professional opinion, and maybe some changes in the way that insurance is sold.

USGS Report Cover

USGS has released the fourth in a series of reports from the National Assessment of Shoreline Change. This report, “Historical Coastal Cliff Retreat along the California Coast,” reviews coastal cliff retreat along more than 350 km of the California coast over a period of approximately 70 years. Other reports in the series: Shoreline Change Data for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Shoreline Change Data for the Sandy Shorelines of the California Coast, and Cliff Erosion Data for the California Coast. These are all available for download as .pdf documents.

UK Map

Portions of the British coast are being rapidly lost to the North Sea through the processes of coastal erostion. The government has decided that it is not worth the taxpayers money to maintain the seawalls that used to protect the land. This philosophy of “managed retreat” is an initial response to global warming and rising sea levels. This loss of land is producing some of the first “environmental refugees”.

NASA Image

After Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf coast, a number of other countries offered cash, supplies, ships, and oil to the US to help with the relief efforts. Over $450 million in cash was offered. Of that amount, only $126 million was collected and only $40 million of that was used as intended. Hundreds of millions in oil, cruise ship housing and medical supplies were either not accepted or accepted and left to waste. I am willing to bet that when the US offers cash aid to other countries they grab the money in a flash. With that kind of money on the table it would be smart to hire a team of people to collect it and get it put to use.