Engineering and design of the Lightning Point Shoreline Restoration Project in Bayou La Batre, Alabama

Lightning Point, located in Alabama at the confluence of the Bayou La Batre navigation channel and Mississippi Sound, is a culturally and ecologically valuable site with an extensive history of shoreline erosion. Between 1916 and 2019, the shoreline experienced approximately 750 to 1,000 ft of shoreline retreat as a result of severe weather events and anthropogenic causes such as shoreline modification and response efforts related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Moffatt & Nichol worked with The Nature Conservancy to restore the lost habitat and resources through ecology-based engineering and design. The Lightning Point Shoreline Restoration Project is a 1-milelong living shoreline that includes approximately 4,700 ft of segmented, overlapping breakwaters, 40 acres of marsh and upland habitat creation, and 10,000 linear feet of tidal creeks. The project was designed to include a diversity of habitat types (subtidal, intertidal, higher scrub-shrub) and to serve as a resilient restoration solution capable of adapting in the face of sea level rise and increasing storm activity.

Coseismic Tectonic Surface Deformation during the 2010 Maule, Chile, Mw 8.8 Earthquake

Tectonic deformation from the 2010 Maule (Chile) Mw 8.8 earthquake included both uplift and subsidence along about 470 km of the central Chilean coast. In the south, deformation included as much as 3 m of uplift of the Arauco Peninsula, which produced emergent marine platforms and affected harbor infrastructure. In the central part of the deformation zone, north of Constitución, coastal subsidence drowned supratidal floodplains and caused extensive shoreline modification. In the north, coastal areas experienced either slight uplift or no detected change in land level. Also, river-channel deposition and decreased gradients suggest tectonic subsidence may have occurred in inland areas. The overall north-south pattern of 2010 coastal uplift and subsidence is similar to the average crestal elevation of the Coast Range between latitudes 33°S and 40°S. This similarity implies that the topography of the Coast Range may reflect long-term permanent strain accrued incrementally over many earthquake cycles.