virginia

Interactive map of coastal and marine geoscience features in the United States

The Marine Cadastre National Viewer is a joint product of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The viewer contains an enormous amount of information relevant to marine and coastal issues in interactive map form. Over 275 different map layers are available on a wide range of topics. The geoscience-related layers include:

Interactive map of coastal flooding impacts from sea level rise

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts data viewer provides a preliminary look at how different amounts of sea level rise would affect coastal flooding in the United States.
 
In addition to overall flooding estimates, users can see the relative social vulnerability of coastal regions; areas currently already subject to coastal flooding; impacts on marshes; and the different levels of confidence with which predictions can be made in different areas.
 

Offshore Energy

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Background:

Offshore energy is a huge and growing resource:

  • About 18 percent of U.S. oil and natural gas is produced offshore and production is growing. Globally, the offshore provides 30 percent of oil and natural gas.
  • Offshore wind is also a growing source of electricity, especially in Europe. The U.S. has significant offshore wind power potential, but no commercial wind facilities are in development [2017 update: the first offshore wind project in the United States went live in December 2016 off the coast of Rhode Island].

Ongoing technological advancements assure all these resources will continue to grow while addressing heightened environmental concerns.

Our speakers are:

Webinar Co-Sponsors:

American Association of Petroleum Geologists, American Geophysical Union, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Consortium for Ocean Leadership, Geological Society of America

Resources to learn more:

Search the Geological Surveys Database for reports and factsheets about offshore energy.

Advances in Earth Science - Offshore Energy - Historical Perspective

Interactive map of the chemistry and mineralogy of soils in the United States

The U.S. Geological Survey provides geochemical and mineralogical maps for the conterminous United States, based on sampling data with a spatial resolution of 1 sample per 1,600 square km, for a total of 4857 sites across the country. The resulting interactive maps allow users to see regional variations in soil chemistry at different depths in the soil.
 

Ocean Acidification Impacts on Fisheries

Friday, March 11, 2016

Background: As the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased over recent history, so has the acidity of oceans worldwide. The changing acidity of the ocean has many ecological and economic impacts, one of the most serious being its effects on marine life and fisheries. The impact of ocean acidification is intensified in colder bodies of water such as those off the coast of New England, a region with a large fisheries sector. These impacts have already been recognized on both coasts, with the Washington, Maine, and Maryland state legislatures commissioning reports on ocean acidification and marine life/fisheries. In 2015, the Massachusetts Legislature also introduced a bill to establish a taskforce to investigate the impact of increasingly acidic waters off the coast of Massachusetts on commercially harvested or grown marine species.

Our speakers include:

Webinar Co-Sponsors:

Consortium for Ocean Leadership, NOAA Ocean Acidification ProgramNortheast Coastal Acidification Network

CEU Credits

To earn CEU credits, please complete the associated on-demand GOLI course that was developed from this webinar with a grade of 70% or higher and then submit your application for CEUs. CEUs are awarded from the American Institute of Professional Geologists. To view the full list of on-demand GOLI courses, please browse the GOLI course catalog.

Resources to learn more:

Search the Geological Surveys Database for reports and factsheets about ocean acidification.

Ocean Acidification Impacts on Fisheries: The geological record of ocean acidification

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - virginia