Rather than offering protection, islands sometimes cause increased wave run-up on shorelines, experiments in a wave laboratory suggest.
beaches, coasts, & shorelines
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Sandy Beaches Are Hotbeds of Biochemical Activity
A new study explores the role of wet sand in coastal ecology.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Run-Ups of Unusual Size
Not all waves are created equal when it comes to eroding sandy shorelines. Here’s a look at the physics that drives the big ones.
Posted inOpinions
Monitoring Coastal Zone Changes from Space
The resilience of coastal communities depends on an integrated, worldwide coastal monitoring effort. Satellite observations provide valuable data on global to local scales.
Posted inNews
Storms May Have Produced Most Mediterranean “Tsunami” Deposits
A new analysis reveals that nearly all of the region’s sedimentary evidence ascribed to tsunamis, which dates back 4,500 years, corresponds to periods of heightened storminess.
Posted inNews
Playing with Water: Humans Are Altering Risk of Nuisance Floods
New research suggests that excessive groundwater usage and damming have changed the natural risk of nuisance floods, for better or worse, in eastern U.S. coastal cities.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Water World: Sea Level Rise, Coastal Floods, and Storm Surges
A special issue of Earth’s Future examines the impacts of sea level rise on coastal areas and showcases a paradigm shift in the modeling of these dynamic systems.
Posted inNews
Hurricane Irma Tears Across Caribbean, Heads to South Florida
Florida residents prepare for potentially catastrophic winds and flooding.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Coastal Wetlands Effectively Sequester “Blue Carbon”
Mangrove forests, salt marshes, seagrass beds, and the like are carbon storage treasure troves.
Posted inNews
Indonesian Cave Reveals Nearly 5,000 Years of Tsunamis
Researchers explore a coastal cave containing layers of sand deposited by 11 prehistoric tsunamis and demonstrate that the time period between massive waves is highly variable.