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Sea-Level Change

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Sea-Level Change:
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Global sea level has always fluctuated depending on the climate. When the climate cools, more ice accumulates at the Earth's poles and sea level drops. When that ice melts, sea level rises. These changes are identifiable in the rock record and ice layers. CMG research aims to understand this cycle and its effects on the marine and coastal environments.
Other related USGS websites:
Global Change Research Program

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

These are results 1 through 25 of 100 matches.

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
USGS-NPS-NASA EAARL Submarine Topography-Northern Florida Keys
Description: Digital map atlas of lidar-derived submarine topography maps for the Northern Florida Keys Reef Tract
updated: 2008-04-25 pages include:

Publication
EAARL Topography-Sagamore Hill National Historic Site (SAHI)
Description: Digital atlas of lidar-derived topography maps for Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
updated: 2008-04-24 pages include:

Publication
EAARL Submarine Topography-Florida Keys National Marine
Description: Digital atlas of Lidar-derived submarine topography maps for Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
updated: 2008-04-21 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
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:

Research Project
USGS Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM) - Welcome!
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: 2008-01-31 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:

Educational Materials
USGS Monterey Bay Science
Description: USGS Monterey Bay Science - USGS research in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and coastal watersheds of central California
updated: 2008-01-01 pages include:

Educational Materials
USGS Coastal Change Hazards
Description: USGS Coastal Change Hazards - Focuses on hurricanes, tsunamis, sea-level rise, shoreline erosion, wetland destruction, and other issues relevant to coastal zone management and disaster preparedness.
updated: 2008-01-01 pages include:

Educational Materials
Coastal and Marine Knowledge Bank
Description: An initiative to develop and present a national-scale, interdisciplinary scientific framework for marine environments, the coastal zone, and coastal watersheds
updated: 2007-11-28 pages include:

Publication
Professional Paper 1661-E: Seismic Stability of the Duwamish River Delta, Seattle, Washington
Description: The delta front of the Duwamish River valley near Elliott Bay and Harbor Island is founded on young Holocene deposits shaped by sea-level rise, episodic volcanism, and seismicity. These river-mouth deposits are highly susceptible to seismic soil liquefaction and are potentially prone to submarine landsliding and disintegrative flow failure. A highly developed commercial-industrial corridor, extending from the City of Kent to the Elliott Bay/Harbor Island marine terminal facilities, is founded on the young Holocene deposits of the Duwamish River valley. The deposits of this Holocene delta have been shaped not only by relative sea-level rise but also by episodic volcanism and seismicity. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR), cores, in situ testing, and outcrops are being used to examine the delta stratigraphy and to infer how these deposits will respond to future volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in the region. A geotechnical investigation of these river-mouth deposits indicates high initial liquefaction susceptibility during earthquakes, and possibly the potential for unlimited-strain disintegrative flow failure of the delta front.
updated: 2007-11-02 pages include:

Research Project
The Coastal Sedimentary System: Northern North Carolina
Description: The USGS, in collaboration with the State of North Carolina and university researchers, is studying the coastal sedimentary system of northern North Carolina. The primary objective is to map the regional sedimentary framework of the inner shelf in order to understand recent coastal processes, including erosion and the impacts of shoreline change.
updated: 2007-10-11 pages include:

Publication
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2005-1249, Coastal Change-Potential Assessment of Sleeping Bear Dunes, Indiana Dunes, and Apostle Islands National Lakeshores to Lake-Level Changes, Title Page
Description: Relative Coastal Change Potential Assessment of Apostle Islands, Indiana Dunes, and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshores to Lake-Level Changes.
updated: 2007-10-11 pages include:

Publication
U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Investigations Series Map I-2600-A
Description: Changes in the area and volume of polar ice sheets are intricately linked to changes in global climate, and the resulting changes in sea level could severely impact the densely populated coastal regions on Earth. Melting of the West Antarctic part alone of the Antarctic ice sheet would cause a sea-level rise of approximately 6 meters (m). The potential sea-level rise after melting of the entire Antarctic ice sheet is estimated to be 65 m (Lythe and others, 2001) to 73 m (Williams and Hall, 1993). In addition to its importance, the mass balance (the net volumetric gain or loss) of the Antarctic ice sheet is highly complex, responding differently to different conditions in each region (Vaughan, 2005). In a review paper, Rignot and Thomas (2002) concluded that the West Antarctic ice sheet is probably becoming thinner overall; although it is thickening in the west, it is thinning in the north. Thomas and others (2004), on the basis of aircraft and satellite laser altimetry surveys, believe the thinning may be accelerating. Joughin and Tulaczyk (2002), on the basis of analysis of ice-flow velocities derived from synthetic aperture radar, concluded that most of the Ross ice streams (ice streams on the east side of the Ross Ice Shelf) have a positive mass balance, whereas Rignot and others (2004) infer even larger negative mass balance for glaciers flowing northward into the Amundsen Sea, a trend suggested by Swithinbank and others (2003a,b, 2004). The mass balance of the East Antarctic ice sheet is thought by Davis and others (2005) to be strongly positive on the basis of the change in satellite altimetry measurements made between 1992 and 2003.
updated: 2007-10-11 pages include:

Publication
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2005-1247, Relative Coastal Change-Potential Assessment of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (GBNPP), Title Page
Description: Coastal Change-Potential Assessment of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
updated: 2007-10-11 pages include:

Publication
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1373, Relative Coastal Change-Potential Assessment of Kenai Fjords National Park (KEFJ), Title Page
Description: Relative Coastal Change Potential Assessment of Kenai Fjords National Park to Sea-Level Change.
updated: 2007-10-11 pages include:

Publication
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2005-1248, Coastal Vulnerability Assessment of Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park to Sea-Level Rise, Title Page
Description: A coastal vulnerability index (CVI) was used to map the relative vulnerability of the coast to future sea-level rise within Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park in Hawaii. The CVI ranks the following in terms of their physical contribution to sea-level rise-related coastal change: geomorphology, regional coastal slope, rate of relative sea-level rise, historical shoreline change rates, mean tidal range and mean significant wave height. The rankings for each input variable were combined, and an index value calculated for 500-meter grid cells covering the park. The CVI highlights those regions where the physical effects of sea-level rise might be the greatest. This approach combines the coastal system's susceptibility to change with its natural ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions, yielding a quantitative, although relative, measure of the park's natural vulnerability to the effects of sea-level rise. The CVI provides an objective technique for evaluation and long-term planning by scientists and park managers. Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park consists of carbonate sand beaches, coral rubble, rocky shoreline, and mangrove wetland areas. The areas within Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park that are likely to be most vulnerable to sea-level rise based on this analysis are areas of unconsolidated sediment and highest wave energy.
updated: 2007-10-11 pages include:

Publication
South Carolina Coastal Erosion Study, Data Report for Observations, October 2003 - April 2004, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2005-1429, Start Page
Description: This data report presents oceanographic observations made at nine sites in Long Bay, South Carolina from October 2003 through April 2004. These sites were offshore of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and were centered around a shore-oblique sand feature that is approximately 10 km long, 2 km wide, and in excess of 3 m thick. The data report contains a description of the field program and instrumentation, and an overview of the observations through summary plots and statistics. The data in NetCDF and ASCII format are provided in digital form. Summary plots and statistics are provided to facilitate browsing of the measurements.
updated: 2007-10-11 pages include:

General Information
El Niño Home Page
Description: El Niño information with links to a broad range of topics such as Floods, Landslides, Coastal Hazards, Climate, News Releases.
updated: 2007-09-30 pages include:

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Coastal and Marine Geology Program > Online Science Resource Locator > Sea-Level Change