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Recent News

Recent News - stories from the last 14 days.

For information about a story, contact Ann Tihansky (202) 208-3342.

Scientists recover a sample of seabed sediment collected near the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault during a collaborative research cruise off southeast Alaska in September 2015.Workshop on the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault: the San Andreas of the North

USGS scientists and colleagues held a workshop to share recently acquired marine data on the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault in southeast Alaska and to plan 2017 research cruises. Participants from USGS, Geological Survey of Canada, Sitka Sound Science Center, Moss Landing Marine Lab, and Friday Harbor Laboratories met October 25-29, 2016, on Orcas Island, Washington. Like California’s San Andreas fault, the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault (QCFF) is a strike-slip fault separating the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. The QFCC lies mostly offshore southeast Alaska and British Columbia. It has experienced seven major earthquakes in the past 100 years, including a 1949 magnitude-8.1 event, Canada’s largest recorded earthquake. The workshop participants are collaborating to fill gaps in knowledge about this extremely active fault and the hazards it poses to communities in Alaska and Canada.

Contact: Danny Brothers, dbrothers@usgs.gov, 831-460-7460

posted: 2016-12-23


At the 2016 AGU Fall Meeting, USGS geophysicist Stephanie Ross speaks with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell about ways to help decision makers, emergency responders, and other stakeholders use scientific findings about tsunamis. Photo credit: USGS.Photo in Washington Post shows USGS tsunami scientist speaking with Interior Secretary at AGU Fall Meeting

A Washington Post article published December 15, 2016, includes a photo of Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell talking with USGS geophysicist Stephanie Ross at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in San Francisco. Ross was showing the Secretary her poster on how to engage decision makers, emergency responders, and other stakeholders in using scientific findings about tsunamis, titled: "Get People Talking: Sharing Tsunami Science Beyond the Web".
View the Washington Post article.
See a larger version of the photo.
Contact: Stephanie Ross, sross@usgs.gov, 650-329-5326.

posted: 2016-12-23


Atlantic Ocean, Outer Banks along the North Carolina coast and Pamlico Sound. (image courtesy of Landsat, Google Earth, 2016)Understanding the behavior of barrier island breaches.

The latest issue of Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans discusses the processes that control a barrier island breach at Pea Island, NC. This breach was impacted by Hurricanes Irene, Sandy, and Arthur. Key findings show that the breach tended to close due to alongshore sediment transport flux events, and the breach tended to open or stay open due to cross-island pressure gradient driven flows between Pamlico Sound and the Atlantic.

Read the article here: Barrier island breach evolution: Alongshore transport and bay-ocean pressure gradient interactions

posted: 2016-12-19


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