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

Sea-Level Change - East Coast

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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.
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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 25 matches.

Research Project
National Assessment of Shoreline Change Project
Description: Beach erosion is a chronic problem along most open-ocean shores of the United States. As coastal populations continue to grow, and community infrastructures are threatened by erosion, there is increased demand for accurate information regarding past and present shoreline changes. There is also need for a comprehensive analysis of shoreline movement that is regionally consistent. To meet these national needs, the Coastal and Marine Geology Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is conducting an analysis of historical shoreline changes along open-ocean sandy shores of the conterminous United States and parts of Alaska and Hawaii. A primary goal of this work is to develop standardized methods for mapping and analyzing shoreline movement so that internally consistent updates can periodically be made to record shoreline erosion and accretion.
updated: 2004-07-21 pages include:

Research Project
National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards
Description: The National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards is a multi-year undertaking to identify and quantify the vulnerability of U.S. shorelines to coastal change hazards such as the effects of severe storms, sea-level rise, and shoreline erosion and retreat. It will continue to improve our understanding of processes that control these hazards, and will allow researchers to determine the probability of coastal change locally, regionally, and nationally. The Assessment will deliver these data and assessment findings about coastal vulnerability to coastal managers, other researchers, and the general public.
updated: 2004-06-10 pages include:

General Information
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1020, COASTAL VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT OF ASSATEAGUE ISLAND NATIONAL SEASHORE (ASIS) TO SEA-LEVEL RISE , Title Page
Description: Coastal Vulnerability Assessment of Assateague Island National Seashore to Sea-Level Rise .
updated: 2004-04-05 pages include:

Publication
Gas (Methane) Hydrates -- A New Frontier - USGS Fact Sheet
Description: Methane trapped in marine sediments as a hydrate represents such an immense carbon reservoir that it must be considered a dominant factor in estimating unconventional energy resources; the role of methane as a 'greenhouse' gas also must be carefully assessed.
updated: 2004-03-02 pages include:

General Information
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 03-439, Coastal vulnerability Assessment of Fire Island (FIIS), to sea-level rise, Title Page
Description: Coastal Vulnerability Assessment of Fire Island National Seashore to Sea-Level Rise.
updated: 2004-02-27 pages include:

Map
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 02-233, Coastal Vulnerability Assessment of Cape Cod National Seashore to Sea-Level Rise, Title Page
Description: Coastal Vulnerability Assessment of Cape Cod National Seashore to Sea-Level Rise
updated: 2003-11-06 pages include:

Publication
An Overview of Coastal Land Loss: With Emphasis on the Southeastern United States
Description: In states bordering the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, vast areas of coastal land have been destroyed since the mid 1800s as a result of natural processes and human activities. The physical factors that have the greatest influence on coastal land loss are reductions in sediment supply, relative sea level rise, and frequent storms, whereas the most important human activities are sediment excavation, river modification, and coastal construction. As a result of these agents and activities, coastal land loss is manifested most commonly as beach/bluff erosion and coastal submergence.
updated: 2003-08-20 pages include:

Movie
USGS Fact Sheet 095-02: Vulnerability of U.S. National Parks to Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Change
Description: Vulnerability of U.S. National Parks to Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Change
updated: 2002-09-19 pages include:

Educational Materials
Coastal Ocean Modeling at the USGS Woods Hole Field Center
Description: Animations (short movies) showing simulations of Coastal water Circulation as numerically modeled using a large amount of empirical environmental data in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts Bay, and Cape Cod Bay. These include tidal pumping of Boston Harbor; a comparison of the distribution of effluent from the (former) sewage outfall in Boston Harbor and the present 9-mile-long tunnel outfall outside the harbor; seasonal water movements in Massachusetts Bay; and an illustration of changes in dry land areas during post-glacial relative sea-level rise from 14000 years ago to the present.
updated: 2002-04-24 pages include:

Publication
USGS Open-File Report 99-559, Stratigraphic Framework Maps of the Nearshore Area of Southern Long Island from Fire Island to Montauk Point, New York
Description: The Nearshore Area of Southern Long Island from Fire Island to Montauk Point, New York was mapped using high-resolution profiling techniques along with surface and vibracore sampling to verify the geophysical interpretations. The goal of the investigation is to determine regional-scale availability of sand as a resource for beach nourishment programs and to investigate the role that inner-shelf morphology and geologic framework have in the erosion and morphology of southern Long Island. Maps derived from interpretation of the subbottom profiles show information on the geometry and distribution of the Quaternary sediments and the underlying Coastal Plain unconformity. This stratigraphy yields a regional framework on which explanations of present (and past) sediment movement, dispersal, and erosion processes are based.
updated: 2002-04-24 pages include:

Publication
Sidescan-Sonar Imagery of the Shoreface and Inner Continental Shelf, Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina
Description: The geologic framework and surficial morphology of the shoreface and inner shelf off Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, were mapped using high-resolution sidescan-sonar, bathymetric, and seismic-reflection surveying techniques, a suite of over 200 diver-vibracores, and extensive sea-floor observations by divers. The inner shelf is a sediment-starved, active surface of marine erosion; modern sediments, where present, form a thin, patchy veneer blanketing Tertiary and Quaternary units.
updated: 2002-04-24 pages include:

Research Project
National Assessment of Coastal Vulnerability To Sea-Level Rise
Description: National Assessment of Coatal Change Hazards information page
updated: 2002-04-24 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: 2002-04-24 pages include:

Research Project
USGS Woods Hole Field Center: Methodology page for SWASH (Surveying Wide Area Shorelines)
Description: Coastal erosion is a serious national problem with long-term economic and social consequences. Developed areas are threatened with billions of dollars in property damage as a result of storm impacts and long-term erosion
updated: 2002-04-24 pages include:

Publication
Seafloor Characterization Offshore New York-New Jersey Metropolitan Area using sidescan sonar
Description: A preliminary synthesis of systematic high-resolution mapping of the sea floor in the New York Bight Apex, using sidescan-sonar and seismic-reflection profiles. The survey provides a new and detailed view of the sea floor, and a new framework for understanding the regional sediment transport system of the New York Bight.
updated: 2002-04-23 pages include:

Publication
Long Island Sound Environmental Studies
Description: Reports and maps on acoustic and textural features of Long Island Sound bottom sediments; Sidescan-sonar imagery of areas off Hammonasset Beach state park, Norwalk, Niantic Bay, Milford, Fishers Island Sound, Falkner Island, New Haven, New London, CT, and Roanoke Pt., NY. Also, articles on a surficial sediment data, benthic communities and contaminants, and currents, and a bibliography.
updated: 2002-04-23 pages include:

Publication
Georeferenced Sea-Floor Mapping and Bottom Photography in Long Island Sound
Description: Extensive information in 12 separate chapters on geology (including late-Pleistocene stratigraphy, and a free-air gravity anomaly map indicative deep substructure), surface sediments, organic carbon, benthic enviroments, megafaunal environments, contaminanats such as metals, mercury, and a bacterial indicator of human pollution; GIS referenced mapping data, and a collection of bottom photographs; Environmental changes 1940s to 1990s.
updated: 2002-04-23 pages include:

Publication
Geologic History of Cape Cod Massachusetts
Description: Cape Cod is a sandy peninsula built mostly during the ice age and juts into the Atlantic Ocean like a crooked arm. Geologists are interested in Cape Cod because it was formed, by glaciers, very recently in terms of geologic time and because of the ever changing shore as the Cape adjusts to the rising sea. This is an online version of USGS geologist Robert Oldale's popular circular.
updated: 2002-04-23 pages include:

Publication
Seafloor Sediment Distribution Off Southern Long Island, New York
Description: The late Holocene evolution of the Fire Island barrier-island is linked directly to the geologic framework of the inner-continental shelf. Mapping results show that the modern physiography of the inner-continental shelf off southern Long Island is an expression of antecedent geology and glacial history, as well as oceanographic processes acting on the sea floor during Holocene marine transgression. The upper surface of the Cretaceous strata provided the foundation for deposition of Quaternary sediment and formed the core of a subaerial headland off Watch Hill during times of lower sea level. The modern sediment deposit was formed from erosion of both the headland areas east of Southampton and off Watch Hill and the inner-continental shelf during Holocene marine transgression.
updated: 2002-04-23 pages include:

Publication
Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary - off Boston MA - Sea Floor topographic contours maps and perspective views
Description: A multibeam echo sounder aboard the Canadian Hydrographic Survey vessel Frederick G. Creed mapped the Stellwagen bank area (covering 1100 sq. nautical miles). Topographic contour maps and perspective maps -displayed as sun-illuminated seabed imagery - show sea floor topography (scale of 1:25,000) show the complex sea floor created by glacial erosion, deposition, and subsequent wave and current action. GIS data of the maps are included.
updated: 2002-04-22 pages include:

Research Project
U.S. Geological Survey Studies in the New York Bight
Description: Since 1992, the U.S. Geological Survey`s Coastal and Marine Geology Program has been conducting studies offshore of New York designed to map and characterize the sea floor, to understand the transport and fate of sediments and associated pollutants, to map the inner shelf and sand deposits along the southern shore of Long Island, and to understand the recent geologic history. A long-term goal of these geological studies is to develop predictive models and geologic information to guide research and sustainable use of the coastal ocean.
updated: 2001-12-14 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: 2000-01-31 pages include:

Research Project
South Carolina Coastal Erosion Study
Description: In South Carolina, the physical processes responsible for coastal erosion are complex, difficult to measure and complicated by the influence of many tidal inlets. Understanding the relative contributions of processes causing coastal erosion is important to mitigation of beach erosion.
updated: 1999-06-03 pages include:

Publication
Short and Long-Term Variability of Ebb-Tidal Deltas: Management Implications
Description: With the increasing demand for suitable beach fill material, coastal planners often covet ebb-tidal shoal sands due to their (typically) coarse grain size and proximity to the beach. However, these sand bodies are rarely mined because of potential adverse effects on adjacent shorelines. The quantification of sediment volumes in an ebb-tidal delta over short and long time spans can be used to identify the system's natural variability.
updated: 1999-03-18 pages include:

Educational Materials
About Gas Hydrates and a USGS gas hydrate project
Description: Questions and answers about submarine gas hydrates: an ice-like crystalline solid formed of water and gas that is found in places under the sea floor and has important implications to techniques of deep-sea drilling and future energy supplies.
updated: 1999-03-08 pages include:

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