scholarly journals Effects of 2010 Hurricane Earl amidst geologic evidence for greater overwash at Anegada, British Virgin Islands

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 21-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. F. Atwater ◽  
Z. Fuentes ◽  
R. B. Halley ◽  
U. S. Ten Brink ◽  
M. P. Tuttle
Keyword(s):  
Virgin Islands ◽  
Salt Ponds ◽  
Beach Ridge ◽  
Coastal Geology ◽  
Caribbean Island ◽  
Coral Rubble ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
Limited Application ◽  
South Shore

Abstract. A post-hurricane survey of a Caribbean island affords comparisons with geologic evidence for greater overwash at the same place. This comparison, though of limited application to other places, helps calibrate coastal geology for assessment of earthquake and tsunami potential along the Antilles Subduction Zone. The surveyed island, Anegada, is 120 km south of the Puerto Rico Trench and is near the paths of hurricanes Donna (1960) and Earl (2010), which were at or near category 4 when at closest approach. The survey focused on Earl's geologic effects, related them to the surge from Hurricane Donna, and compared them further with erosional and depositional signs of southward overwash from the Atlantic Ocean that dates to 1200–1450 AD and to 1650–1800 AD. The main finding is that the geologic effects of these earlier events dwarf those of the recent hurricanes. Hurricane Earl's geologic effects at Anegada, observed mainly in 2011, were limited to wrack deposition along many of the island's shores and salt ponds, accretion of small washover (spillover) fans on the south shore, and the suspension and deposition of microbial material from interior salt ponds. Earl's most widespread deposit at Anegada, the microbial detritus, was abundantly juxtaposed with evidence for catastrophic overwash in prior centuries. The microbial detritus formed an extensive coating up to 2 cm thick that extended into breaches in beach-ridge plains of the island's north shore, onto playas that are underlain by a sand-and-shell sheet that extends as much as 1.5 km southward from the north shore, and among southward-strewn limestone boulders pendant to outcrops as much as 1 km inland. Earl's spillover fans also contrast with a sand-and-shell sheet, which was dated previously to 1650–1800, by being limited to the island's south shore and by extending inland a few tens of meters at most. These findings complement those reported in this issue by Michaela Spiske and Robert Halley (Spiske and Halley, 2014), who studied a coral-rubble ridge that lines part of Anegada's north shore. Spiske and Halley attribute the ridge to storms that were larger than Earl. But they contrast the ridge with coral boulders that were scattered hundreds of meters inland by overwash in 1200–1450.

scholarly journals A coral-rubble ridge as evidence for hurricane overwash, Anegada (British Virgin Islands)

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 9-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Spiske ◽  
R. B. Halley
Keyword(s):  
Storm Surges ◽  
Average Diameter ◽  
Virgin Islands ◽  
Wave Regime ◽  
Maximum Width ◽  
Coral Rubble ◽  
Sedimentary Characteristics ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
Minimum Age

Abstract. A coral-rubble ridge fringes part of the north shore of Anegada, a low-lying island in the northern Caribbean. Both historical reports and the geological record underline its vulnerability to tsunami and hurricanes. In this study we document the sedimentary characteristics of a coral-rubble ridge, which extends discontinuously along 1.5–1.8 km of chiefly north-facing shores at Soldier Wash. The ridge is less distinctive and appears only in patches along the west-facing shoreline at Windless Bight, where the wave regime is calmer. It is located ca. 8 m from the fair-weather shore, has a maximum width of 15 m and a maximum thickness of 0.8 m. The lower seaward-facing slope of the ridge is relatively flat, probably due to successive reworking, whereas the upper seaward slope is steep and partly displays avalanching faces. The landward flank is gently sloping and terminates abruptly. The ridge is mainly composed of well-rounded, encrusted and bored coral rubble (average diameter of 16 cm) that has been reworked in the shallow marine environment prior to transport. Only a few pieces of angular beach rock and karstified Pleistocene limestone are incorporated. The components build a clast-supported framework. No sand is present in the interstices. Imbrication of flat clasts indicates a deposition during landward bed load transport. The ridge morphology, composition and related hydrodynamic conditions during its emplacement are typical for coral-rubble ridges deposited by hurricane-induced storm surges. In comparison, nearby evidence for tsunami inundation is very different because the tsunami-transported coral boulders on Anegada are much bigger (2 m) than the biggest components in the ridge, they are deposited much farther inland (up to 1.5 km), and the corals seem to have been freshly broken out of the reef by the tsunami. The age of the ridge is difficult to estimate. The dark grey surface of the ridge is caused by bioweathering by endolithic organisms that takes tens of years and may give a very rough estimate of the minimum age of the ridge. Storms and related surges that built the ridge were likely stronger than 2010 hurricane Earl, which attained category 4 north of the island. Earl was able to slightly rework the lower seaward part of the ridge, but transported only few and smaller pieces of coral rubble and sand onshore. Therefore, the coral-rubble ridge found at the north shore of Anegada may imply that the island is vulnerable to hurricane-induced surges of greater impact (in relation to storm path and intensity) compared with the any of the recently documented storms which were only able to rework the ridge.

Preliminary interpretation of the first refraction arrivals in Gaspé from shots in Labrador and Quebec

1969 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 771-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas S. Rankin ◽  
Ravi Ravindra ◽  
David Zwicker
Keyword(s):  
Upper Mantle ◽  
Arrival Time ◽  
The South ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
A Value ◽  
South Shore ◽  
Compressional Velocity ◽  
St Lawrence River

Previous work in the Gulf of St. Lawrence has yielded an unusually high upper-mantle compressional velocity. In the Gaspé area a more recent determination has yielded a value of 8.75 ± 0.20 km/s for an unreversed profile. The arrival time at a station on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River suggests that there is no major difference in velocity and depth relative to the south shore.

Petrochemical and stratigraphic aspects of North Mountain basalt from the north shore of the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada

1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 2710-2717 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Greenough ◽  
Lois M. Jones ◽  
David J. Mossman
Keyword(s):  
Major Element ◽  
Sedimentary Rocks ◽  
Bay Of Fundy ◽  
Average Composition ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
Flow Units ◽  
Lateral Extent ◽  
South Shore ◽  
Magma Migration

Early Jurassic quartz-normative tholeiitic basalts occur in a series of fault blocks at four localities (Cap d'Or, Parrsboro, Five Islands, and Bass River) along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy. Major-element and trace-element data show that they represent outliers of the North Mountain basalt (NMB), which from the south shore of the Bay of Fundy are well-known. Diagnostic 87Sr/86Sr ratios (≈0.70609) indicate that a thick (>90 m) flow at Five Islands and Cap d'Or represents the lower unit of NMB, thus extending this single flow's lateral extent to 230 km. Thin flows overlying the thick flow at Cap d'Or suggest that the middle unit of NMB also occurs on the north shore. A thick flow at McKay Head (Parrsboro area) shows a variable Sr isotopic composition that is probably a result of metasomatism (with Rb addition) along the Cobequid fault. The average composition (0.70656) is similar to that of the upper unit of NMB. If the flow does represent the upper unit, then four thinner flows above it form an "overlying unit" not recognized along North Mountain. Although the nature of contacts between the middle and upper units was not observed, a lack of sedimentary rocks between all other flow units indicates that little or no sedimentation occurred between basalt eruptions. North shore basalts appear less mafic (more evolved) than south shore basalts, providing support for the hypothesis of differentiation during northeasterly magma migration through dykes that fed 230 km long fissure eruptions.

scholarly journals XI. Researches on the tides.—tenth series. on the laws of low water at the port of plymouth, and on the permanency of mean water

1839 ◽  
Vol 129 ◽  
pp. 151-161 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
High Water ◽  
Level Line ◽  
English Channel ◽  
Know How ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
South Shore ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Difference

In former communications to the Society, the laws of high water at Plymouth and other places have been the subject of my researches. These being obtained, the laws of low water are a subject of importance and interest on many accounts. The first ground of my pursuing this subject was the desire to ascertain how far the mean water , that is, the height midway between high and low water, is permanent during the changes which high and low water undergo. That it is approximately so at Ply­mouth, had been ascertained both by Mr. Walker and myself, by means of a com­parison of a short series of observations. But it was desirable to know with more exactness what was the real amount of this permanency, when, by using a long series of observations of high and low water, the irregularities arising from accident, and from taking imperfect cycles of inequalities, were eliminated. There was another reason which made this inquiry important at the present time. An operation has been recently carried on by the direction and at the expense of the British Association, with a view of ascertaining what surface ought to be taken as the permanent level of the sea. A Level Line has been carried with great care and accuracy from the north shore of Somerset to the south shore of Devon ; and the po­sition of this line has been fixed, so as to be recognised at any future time, by means of marks at Axmouth, at East Quantockshead, at Stolford, and at Portishead. This line has also been referred to the sea at its extremities ; and the observations show that the height of mean water coincides, at least very nearly, at different places, as well as at the same place at different times. While the difference of levels of low water at Axmouth on the English Channel, and Wick Rocks on the Bristol Channel, is not less than twelve feet; the mean water at those two places coincides in level within a few inches. In order to determine further what accuracy may be attained in this result, we are led to inquire what is the degree of permanency at one place. I may further add, that it cannot but be instructive to know how far the corrections of the height and time of low water, for lunar parallax and declination, agree in form and amount with the same corrections already obtained for high water.

scholarly journals Numerical simulation of a tsunami event during the 1996 volcanic eruption in Karymskoye lake, Kamchatka, Russia

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 2359-2369 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Torsvik ◽  
R. Paris ◽  
I. Didenkulova ◽  
E. Pelinovsky ◽  
A. Belousov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wave Speed ◽  
Field Measurements ◽  
Wave Model ◽  
Tsunami Source ◽  
Wave Runup ◽  
Underwater Explosions ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
South Shore

Abstract. Karymskoye caldera lake is a nearly circular body of water with a diameter of approximately 4 km and a depth of up to 60 m. The sublacustrine, Surtseyan-type eruption in the lake on 2–3 January 1996 included a series of underwater explosions. A field survey conducted the following summer showed signs of tsunami wave runup around the entire coastline of the lake, with a maximum of 29 m runup at the north shore near the source of the eruption, and 2–5 m runup at locations on the east and south shore far away from the source. The tsunami has been simulated using the numerical long wave model COULWAVE, with input from reconstructed realistic pre-eruption bathymetry. The tsunami source was chosen as suggested by Le Mehaute (1971) and Mirchina and Pelinovsky (1988). The initial wave was prescribed by a parabolic shape depression with a radius of R=200 m, and a height of 23 m at the rim of the parabola. Simulations were conducted to show principle directions for wave propagation, wave speed and arrival time for the leading wave group at the shore, and the distribution of wave height throughout the lake. Estimated result for wave runup are of the same order of magnitude as field measurements, except near the source of the eruption and at a few locations where analysis show significant wave breaking.

scholarly journals La mer de Goldthwait au Québec

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 61-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Claude Dionne
Keyword(s):  
Quebec City ◽  
The South ◽  
Lawrence Estuary ◽  
Marine Invasion ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
Upper Limit ◽  
South Shore ◽  
Anticosti Island ◽  
St Lawrence Estuary

The Goldthwait Sea is defined as the late- and post-Glacial marine invasion in the St. Lawrence Estuary and Gulf east of Québec City. In Québec, this sea has submerged an area of about 25 000 km2. The largest areas submerged are the north shore of the St. Lawrence between Les Escoumins and Blanc-Sablon, the south shore between Levis and Tourelles, and the Anticosti Island. The upper limit of the Goldthwait Sea varies from place to place. The Goldthwait Sea began 14 000 years ago and land emergence is still in progress, since the pre-Wisconsin marine level has not been recovered yet. For a better chronology, this long interval needs to be subdivided. Three main periods have been recognized: Goldthwaitian I, II and III. However, a geographical subdivision is also needed. Numerous shorelines were observed at various elevations throughout the area formely submerged by the Goldthwait Sea. However, only a few shorelines are well developed and extensive, and correlations between former shorelines are difficult to establish. Only three levels are widespead and common to the Estuary and parts of the Gulf. The isostatic recovery has been rapid during the first three thousand years after déglaciation of the area: about 75%.

The General Oceanography of the Strait of Belle Isle

1954 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G. Huntsman ◽  
W. B. Bailey ◽  
H. B. Hachey
Keyword(s):  
Shallow Water ◽  
The South ◽  
Hydrographic Data ◽  
Arctic Water ◽  
Tidal Period ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
Labrador Current ◽  
South Shore ◽  
North And South

Hydrographic data for late August, 1923, show for the Strait (a) progressive inward movement on the north side of Arctic or sub-Arctic water, (b) progressive outward movement on the south side of Gulf water and (c) a dominant outward flow with evidence of a previous dominant inward flow. Time differences suggest tidal causes for the marked temperature and salinity changes. Current measurements for a double tidal period indicate residual trends of nine and eight miles per day in opposite directions on the north and south sides of the Strait. Inside, the Esquiman Channel shows two contra-clockwise eddies north and south of the Mekattina Bank. In addition, hydrographic data show a strong northeasterly movement along the Newfoundland shore and a weaker southwesterly one along the opposite Quebec shore.Planktonic animals indicate the water movements, Mertensia, Acartia spiniremis, Themisto, Pseudalibrotus and Oikopleura vanhöffeni surviving to various degrees in the water from the Labrador Current that reaches the centre of the Gulf along the north shore of the Strait and Channel. Other forms characterize the warm shallow water along the Newfoundland shore inside the Strait and show its movement outward to the east coast of Newfoundland. The Greenland seal fishery of winter reflects the inward movement from the Labrador Current. Cod and herring fisheries invade this cool water of the north shore only locally in summer with access of warmer water from the south shore. Lobsters and cunners are very abundant in, but particularly confined to, the warm shallow water mentioned above.

scholarly journals Coral-rubble ridges as dynamic coastal features – short-term reworking and weathering processes

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 55-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Spiske
Keyword(s):  
Size Composition ◽  
Virgin Islands ◽  
Tropical Storms ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Coral Rubble ◽  
Weathering Processes ◽  
North Shore ◽  
Storm Waves ◽  
Exposure Age ◽  
Coastal Features

Abstract. A coral-rubble ridge built by storm waves at Anegada (British Virgin Islands) underwent remarkable changes in shape and weathering in a 23-month period. The ridge is located along the island's north shore, in the lee of a fringing reef and a reef flat. This coarse-clast ridge showed two major changes between March 2013, when first examined, and February 2015, when revisited. First, a trench dug in 2013, and intentionally left open for further examination, was found almost completely infilled in 2015, and the ridge morphology was modified by slumping of clasts down the slope and by reworking attributable to minor storm waves. In size, composition and overall condition, most of the clasts that filled the trench resemble reworked clasts from the ridge itself; only a small portion had been newly brought ashore. Second, a dark gray patina formed on the whitish exteriors of the carbonate clasts that had been excavated in 2013. These biologically weathered, darkened clasts had become indistinguishable from clasts that had been at the ridge surface for a much longer time. The findings have two broader implications. First, coastal coarse-clast ridges respond not solely to major storms, but also to tropical storms or minor hurricanes. The modification and reworking of the ridge on Anegada most probably resulted from hurricane Gonzalo which was at category 1–2 as it passed about 60 km north of the island in October 2014. Second, staining of calcareous clasts by cyanobacteria in the supralittoral zone occurs within a few months. In this setting, the degree of darkening quickly saturates as a measure of exposure age.

scholarly journals Impacts of Agricultural Areas on Spatio-Temporal Variability of Daily Minimum Extreme Flows during the Transitional Seasons (Spring and Fall) in Southern Quebec

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 3487
Author(s):  
Ali Arkamose Assani ◽  
Ayoub Zeroual ◽  
Alexandre Roy ◽  
Christophe Kinnard
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Variability ◽  
The South ◽  
Extreme Flows ◽  
North Shore ◽  
Daily Minimum ◽  
The North ◽  
South Shore ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Agricultural Areas

Several statistical methods were used to analyze the spatio-temporal variability of daily minimum extreme flows (DMEF) in 17 watersheds—divided into three homogenous hydroclimatic regions of southern Quebec—during the transitional seasons (spring and fall), during the 1930–2019 period. Regarding spatial variability, there was a clear difference between the south and north shores of the St. Lawrence River, south of 47° N. DMEF were lower in the more agricultural watersheds on the south shore during transitional seasons compared to those on the north shore. A correlation analysis showed that this difference in flows was mainly due to more agricultural areas ((larger area (>20%) on the south than on the north shore (<5%)). An analysis of the long-term trend of these flows showed that the DMEF of south-shore rivers have increased significantly since the 1960s, during the fall (October to December), due to an increase in rainfall and a reduction in cultivated land, which increased the infiltration in the region. Although there was little difference between the two shores in the spring (April to June), we observed a decrease in minimum extreme flows in half (50%) of the south-shore rivers located north of 47° N.

Distribution of Enteric Bacteria in the Quebec City Section of the St-Lawrence River

1974 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-114
Author(s):  
Ronald E. Simard ◽  
John A. Zee
Keyword(s):  
Fecal Coliform ◽  
Enteric Bacteria ◽  
Quebec City ◽  
Klebsiella Pneumonia ◽  
North Shore ◽  
The North ◽  
South Shore ◽  
Total Bacteria ◽  
St Lawrence River ◽  
Made In

Abstract During the summer of 1973, a survey was made in order to establish the level of enteric bacteria in the sediments and water of the St-Lawrence River. In the sediments, the number of total bacteria, yeast and mold fluctuates from station to station and with the tide. Higher counts of total and fecal coliform were encountered on the north shore than on the south shore resulting from Quebec City sewerage. The number of fecal bacteria decreased when approaching the Gulf and their number was higher at rising tide. The main species encountered were Klebsiella pneumonia, Salmonella enteridis and Escherichia spp.

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