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Climate

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Past climate information is recorded in historical data, sedimentary sequences, and past and present flora and fauna. Such information helps us to understand and guide management of modern habitats. Profound human-induced changes are often seen locally, and sometimes regionally. Paleoclimate records also serve as tests for predictive numerical climate models, which can be used both to understand current conditions and to attempt to forecast future climatic changes, which may affect coastal areas such as bays and estuaries, lakes, continental margins, and the polar regions.

Other related USGS websites:
Global Change Research Program
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 43 matches.

Research Project
USGS Coral Reef Studies

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

Publication
Scientific Investigations Report 2009-5116: Topographic Change Detection at Select Archeological Sites in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 2006�2007

Description: Topographic change of archeological sites within the Colorado River corridor of Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP) is a subject of interest to National Park Service managers and other stakeholders in the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program. Although long-term topographic change resulting from a variety of natural processes is typical in the Grand Canyon region, a continuing debate exists on whether and how controlled releases from Glen Canyon Dam, located immediately upstream of GCNP, are impacting rates of site erosion, artifact transport, and the preservation of archeological resources. Continued erosion of archeological sites threatens both the archeological resources and our future ability to study evidence of past cultural habitation. Understanding the causes and effects of archaeological site erosion requires a knowledge of several factors including the location and magnitude of the changes occurring in relation to archeological resources, the rate of the changes, and the relative contribution of several potential causes, including sediment depletion associated with managed flows from Glen Canyon Dam, site-specific weather patterns, visitor impacts, and long-term climate change. To obtain this information, highly accurate, spatially specific data are needed from sites undergoing change. Using terrestrial lidar data collection techniques and novel TIN- and GRID-based change-detection post-processing methods, we analyzed topographic data for nine archeological sites. The data were collected using three separate data collection efforts spanning 16 months (May 2006 to September 2007). Our results documented positive evidence of erosion, deposition, or both at six of the nine sites investigated during this time interval. In addition, we observed possible signs of change at two of the other sites. Erosion was concentrated in established gully drainages and averaged 12 cm to 17 cm in depth with maximum depths of 50 cm. Deposition was concentrated at specific locations outside of drainages but generally was spread over larger areas (tens to hundreds of square meters). Maximum depths of deposition averaged 12 cm to 15 cm and reached as much as 35 cm. Overall, we found that the spatial distribution and magnitudes of surface change are specific to each site and that a thorough understanding of the geomorphology, weather, and sand supply is requisite for a complete understanding of the data. Additional work in combining these results with site-specific weather, hydrology, and geomorphology data will assist in the development of working models for determining the causes of the documented topographic changes.
updated: 2009-06-16 pages include:

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:

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
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
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 - 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
Coral Mortality and African Dust

Description: Why have coral reefs that are bathed in clear oceanic waters throughout much of the Caribbean suffered algal infestation, coral diseases, and near extinction of herbivorous sea urchins from the 1970s through early 1990s? The best known factors detrimental to coral reefs do not apply for many of the affected reefs where human population is low.
updated: 2008-02-14 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:

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
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:

General Information
El Ni�o Home Page

Description: El Ni�o information with links to a broad range of topics such as Floods, Landslides, Coastal Hazards, Climate, News Releases.
updated: 2007-09-30 pages include:

Research Project
Gulf of Mexico and Southeast Tidal Wetlands

Description: This project is investigating the loss of coastal wetlands and adjacent uplands in order to determine long-term change in wetlands and to provide a model for determining areas that are most vulnerable to loss because of combinations of human and natural impacts.
updated: 2007-06-01 pages include:

Map
Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-2400: Map Showing Seacliff Response to Climatic and Seismic Events, Seabright Beach, Santa Cruz County, California

Description: The coastal cliffs along much of the central California coast are actively retreating. Large storms and periodic earthquakes are responsible for most of the documented sea cliff slope failures. Long-term average erosion rates calculated for this section of coast do not provide the spatial or temporal data resolution necessary to identify the processes responsible for retreat of the sea cliffs where episodic retreat threatens homes and community infrastructure. Research suggests that more erosion occurs along the California coast over a short time scale, during periods of severe storms or seismic activity, than occurs during decades of normal weather or seismic quiescence.
updated: 2007-04-23 pages include:

Map
Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-2399: Map Showing Seacliff Response to Climatic and Seismic Events, Seacliff State Beach, Santa Cruz County, California

Description: The 1.2 km stretch of Seacliff State Beach included in this study is a portion of a continuous section of sea cliffs that extend 3 km from New Brighton State Beach in the north to Aptos Creek in the south. The cliffs at Seacliff State Beach are protected from waves by a seasonally dependent, variable-width sandy beach backed by a seawall. Waves only reach the base of the cliffs during extreme storms that occur on the order of once every several decades. Therefore, the sea cliff failures and resulting cliff retreat that occur along this stretch of coast are primarily a result of terrestrial processes (overland flow, groundwater flow, and seismic shaking).
updated: 2007-04-23 pages include:

Map
Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-2398: Map Showing Seacliff Response to Climatic and Seismic Events, Depot Hill, Santa Cruz County, California

Description: Map Showing Seacliff Response to Climatic and Seismic Events, Depot Hill, Santa Cruz County, California
updated: 2007-04-23 pages include:

Research Project
Coasts of Colombia

Description: Due to the complex geologic history of the northwestern part of South America, the Colombian coasts include a variety of coastline types, ranging from high-relief, steep-plunging cliffs typical of igneous and metamorphic massifs, to low, sandy barrier islands and extensive mangrove swamps characteristic of deltaic areas of both coasts.
updated: 2006-06-14 pages include:

Research Project
Coral Microbial Ecology

Description: Coral microbial ecology is the study of the relationship of coral-associated microorganisms to each other, the coral host, and to their environment.
updated: 2006-02-14 pages include:

Publication
Antarctica - The Dynamic Heart of It All - USGS Fact Sheet

Description: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has worked in Antarctica for nearly 50 years, starting in 1947 with geophysical and geologic surveys and in 1957 with topographic mapping. Today the USGS also does marine, airborne, and satellite studies, as well as mapping and coring of the ice sheet, as part of the U.S. Antarctic Program. USGS scientific leadership is a cornerstone for international Antarctic cooperation, and data and information gathered by USGS researchers are important to the development of U.S. policy regarding the Antarctic.
updated: 2004-03-02 pages include:

Publication
Coastal Erosion of Southern Lake Michigan - USGS Fact Sheet

Description: Geological Survey studies the geologic processes at work in the Great Lakes region because they have direct bearing on the use, management, development, and preservation of the shoreline. It is important to understand how these processes shape our daily lives. About 15 percent of the United States' and 50 percent of Canada's population live along or near the 9,000-kilometer-long coastline of the Great Lakes. About 83 percent of the shoreline is privately-owned with property values as high as $10,000 per linear foot of lakefront.
updated: 2004-03-02 pages include:

Publication
Investigating Climate Change of Western North America - USGS Fact Sheet

Description: The strength and position of the California Current drives the climate of the western United States. When global climate changed, the California Current should have been affected in such a way that evidence of change should be seen in 'proxy' data. If we can see how oceans respond to climate change, we can then infer how the atmosphere has reacted through time. The U.S. Geological Survey is examining a variety of proxy data from western North America and the eastern North Pacific Ocean that might give climate models added validity.
updated: 2004-03-02 pages include:

Publication
Lake Baikal - A Touchstone for Global Change and Rift Studies - USGS Fact Sheet

Description: The Lake Baikal rift system is a modern analogue for formation of ancient Atlantic-type continental margins. It tells us the first chapter in the story of how continents separate and ultimately develop into ocean basins like the Atlantic Ocean.
updated: 2004-03-02 pages include:

These are results 1 through 25 of 43 matches.

Coastal and Marine Geology Program > Online Science Resource Locator > Climate