Surface tides, while dramatic, play a minor role. The Juan de Fuca Canyon reaches the opening of the strait that separates the U. The canyon is just under 4 miles wide and at least yards deep, or twice the depth of the surrounding seafloor. The intense flow and mixing measured inside the canyon could help explain the mysterious productivity of Northwest shores. The northern section of the west coast has many more canyons than Oregon or California, with 11 along the Washington coast.
Measurements by another UW oceanographer in the s first showed water flowing through Juan de Fuca Canyon with a direction that depends on the coastal winds. Specifically, in the last 5, years, sea level has remained relatively constant in northern Puget Sound, whereas in southern Puget Sound, submergence has occurred.
The behavior of the Puget Lobe of the Vashon glacier is shown in the diagram pictures to the right. P ollution in our local lakes, streams, rivers and Puget Sound affects everyone.
All water runs downhill through the watershed as surface water or ground water to Puget Sound. So anything in that water can reach and effect Puget Sound. Pollution harms fish, shellfish and other forms of life, either killing them directly, poisoning their food or, for some species of recreational or commercial importance, making them unfit to eat.
Pollution can come from untreated or poorly treated human waste, such as leaking and broken septic systems and inadequate waste water treatment plants. Untreated agriculture and pet waste are another major problem. Stormwater runoff from our streets, roofs and lawns also adds both organic material to the water as well as chemicals such as copper from automobile brakes, nitrogen and phosphorus from lawn fertilizer and oil from leaking trucks and cars.
Catastrophic loss of oil and gas from vessels, cars and trucks can be especially damaging to both marine and freshwater ecosystems. As the human and animal population has grown around Puget Sound since the early 19th century, methods of waste disposal have strained to keep up. We must continue to improve and expand our waste water and storm water treatment systems to reduce the levels of bacteria and viruses and harmful chemicals produced by our high standard of living reaching our local streams, rivers and Puget Sound.
What do the famous writers John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell and the first ecological evaluation of marine habitats have in common? Why Ed Ricketts of course! We publish a large variety of hazard maps. You can also find these data on the Geologic Information Portal. We are proud to continue the legacy of pioneering geologic study that began around the turn of the 20th century when J.
Harlen Bretz published a history of Puget Sound glaciation in The Puget Sound is part of the larger geologic province of the Puget Lowland. Both were sculpted by the thick and extensive glaciers that advanced south to just beyond Olympia. Glacial till sediment deposited directly by the ice and outwash sediment deposited by meltwater in front of the glacier make up most of what is found at or near the surface. These glacial sediments were deposited during the last 2 million years by numerous glacial advances, the most recent of which was around 15, years ago.
The glacier covered the area in several thousand feet of ice. As glaciers move, sediment is scraped off the ground and transported on top of, within, beneath, and in front of the ice. This created many of the long and narrow hills and lakes we see today. Glaciers are capable of lifting, mixing, and moving rocks from the size of very large boulders to clay.
The meltwater streams that flow in front of advancing and retreating glacial front can also move significant amounts of sediment. Though glacial sediment covers a great deal of the Puget Lowland, isolated exposures of bedrock are found throughout. The southern area of the Puget Lowland is partly covered with ancient lava flows, similar to those found at Mount Rainier and Mount St.
To the north, the San Juan islands are composed of metamorphic rocks accreted onto North America million years ago. Unconformity on Fourth Beach between dipping sediments below and flat sediments above. Photo credit: D.
The Pacific coast of Washington is characterized by river and alpine glacier sediments above basalt and marine sedimentary rocks that were accreted to the continent.
The southern coastline lined with sandy sediment that works its way from the mouths of the rivers. This study provides detailed analyses of the hydrodynamics and sediment fluxes of a recently restored U. Pacific Northwest estuary, a 61 ha former Caged mussels used as biomonitors can provide insights about ambient contaminant assemblages and spatial patterns, sources of contaminants, and contaminant exposure risks for consumers of wild and farmed mussels.
This study explored the potential role of ambient sediment in the uptake of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs , polychlorinated This document provides guidelines for assessing exposure to future coastal flooding during extreme coastal water level events — whether these are due to tides, surge, wave run-up, or, more likely, a combination of the three.
These guidelines provide information about the current and future magnitude of extreme coastal water levels across Geological Survey studied topographic, hydrologic, and climatic data for the Nooksack River basin to document recent Forage fish are small, abundant, schooling planktivores that form a critical link in marine food webs by transferring energy from plankton up to birds, fishes, and marine mammals.
Forage fishes in Puget Sound include the iconic Pacific herring as well as lesser known species such as surf smelt and the Pacific sand lance. There are significant Rivers in Cascade watersheds carry sediment with a volcanic composition that is distinct from the plutonic composition of the Puget lowlands.
Compositional properties signatures allow discrimination of river-sourced Cascade from lowland sediment, and inferences about transport pathways. Surface sediment on land contains atmospheric radionuclides The transport of coal and oil can result in contaminated soil, water, and organisms from unintended releases.
Trains carrying coal and crude oil regularly pass through Puget Sound, Washington, and an increase in the number of coal and oil trains is expected in the future. This study characterized levels of potentially toxic contaminants in One of the desired outcomes of dam decommissioning and removal is the recovery of aquatic and riparian ecosystems.
To investigate this common objective, we synthesized information from empirical studies and ecological theory into conceptual models that depict key physical and biological links driving ecological responses to removing dams. Understanding river response to sediment pulses is a fundamental problem in geomorphic process studies, with myriad implications for river management. However, because large sediment pulses are rare and usually unanticipated, they are seldom studied at field scale.
This data release presents eelgrass distributions and bathymetry data derived from acoustic surveys of Bellingham Bay, Washington. This imagery was processed using structure-from-motion SfM photogrammetric techniques to derive a high-resolution digital surface model DSM , orthomosaic imagery, and topographic point clouds.
In order to maximize the extent of the. In order to maximize the extent of the This imagery was processed using structure-from-motion SfM photogrammetric techniques to derive high-resolution digital surface models DSM , orthomosaic imagery, and topographic point clouds. This survey, along with two other surveys, was conducted to map changes that have occurred following sediment input from dam removals This data release presents eelgrass distributions and bathymetric data from repeated surveys performed on the Nisqually River delta to document interannual changes in eelgrass abundance and coastal morphology following the removal of dikes in that restored tidal processes to over ha of former freshwater wetlands.
Includes data collected in , , and , with more to be added This data release includes time-series and discrete measurements made within two breaches constructed in a former flood-control levee of a restored agricultural area in Port Susan, Washington. An area of approximately 61 ha near the mouth of the Stillaguamish River was reconnected to tidal flow via levee breaches as part of a larger restoration effort that took place in Continuous pressure fluctuations are transformed into surface-wave observations of wave heights, periods, and frequency spectra at minute intervals.
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