Earth Sciences Commons^™

Giants Among Micromorphs: Were Cincinnatian (Ordovician, Katian) Small Shelly Phosphatic Faunas Dwarfed?, Benjamin F. Dattilo, Rebecca L. Freeman, Winfried S. Peters, William P. Heimbrock, Bradley Deline, Anthony J. Martin, Jack W. Kallmeyer, Jesse Reeder, Anne Argast

Winfried S. Peters

Sustainable Development, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

No abstract provided.

The Sustainable Relationship: What The United States And The United Kingdom Can Teach Each Other About Climate Change And Sustainable Development At The National Level, John Dernbach, Andrea Ross

John C. Dernbach

No abstract provided.

Meteoric 10Be, FeD, And Clay In Critical Zone Soils, Front Range, Colorado, Cianna Wyshnytzky, James Mccarthy

Cianna E Wyshnytzky

The critical zone is the zone within which meteoric water, atmospheric gases, soil, and bedrock interact, encompassing the zone of soil formation (Anderson et al., 2007). The concentrations of various pedogenic compounds at a given location indicate the degree of weathering that has taken place in the Critical Zone. Among the products of chemical weathering are secondary phyllosilicate minerals (clays) and iron (Birkeland, 1999). At stable sites, chronosequence studies have shown that the amount of pedogenic iron oxide and clay increase as soils become older (McFadden and Hendricks, 1985).

Meteoric ¹⁰Be is a cosmogenic nuclide produced from oxygen and nitrogen …

Holocene Sediment Distribution On The Inner Continental Shelf Of Northeastern South Carolina: Implications For The Regional Sediment Budget And Long-Term Shoreline Response, Jenny Denny, William Schwab, Wayne Baldwain, Walter Barnhadt, Paul Gayes, Robert Morton, John Warner, Neil Driscoll, George Voulgaris

George Voulgaris

High-resolution geophysical and sediment sampling surveys were conducted offshore of the Grand Strand, South Carolina to define the shallow geologic framework of the inner shelf. Results are used to identify and map Holocene sediment deposits, infer sediment transport pathways, and discuss implications for the regional coastal sediment budget.

The thickest deposits of Holocene sediment observed on the inner shelf form shoal complexes composed of moderately sorted fine sand, which are primarily located offshore of modern tidal inlets. These shoal deposits contain ∼67 M m3 of sediment, approximately 96% of Holocene sediment stored on the inner shelf. Due to the lack …

Submarine Volcanism In The Straits Of Sicily, Steven Carey, Katherine Bell, Michael Marani, Mauro Rosi, Edward Baker, Chris Roman, Marco Pistolesi, Joshua Kelly

Christopher N. Roman

No abstract provided.

The Magnitude, Timing And Abruptness Of Changes In North African Dust Deposition Over The Last 20,000 Years, D. Mcgee, P. Demenocal, G. Winckler, J. Stuut, Louisa Bradtmiller

Louisa I. Bradtmiller

No abstract provided.

When Will America, World Make Sustainability A Priority?, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

No abstract provided.

Sustaining America, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

This essay summarizes U.S. sustainability efforts over the two decades since the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (or Earth Summit) in 1992. It also summarizes basic findings and recommendations from Acting as if Tomorrow Matters: Accelerating the Transition to Sustainability (Environmental Law Institute 2012). Drawing on the expertise of more than four dozen sustainability practitioners in a variety of fields, the book teases from the limited progress made in the United States over the past two decades the overall patterns for that progress. It also reviews the most significant obstacles to sustainability, again showing patterns in those obstacles across …

Radon As An Indicator Of Limited Cross-Shelf Mixing Of Submarine Groundwater Discharge Along An Open Ocean Beach In The South Atlantic Bight During Observed Hypoxia, Clayton Mccoy, Richard Viso, Richard Peterson, Susan Libes, Brent Lewis, John Ledoux, George Voulgaris, Erik Smith, Denise Sanger

George Voulgaris

Amongst other ocean state parameters, the development of a wave measurement program was supported as part of the Southeast U.S. Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System (SEACOOS). The program focused on supporting nearshore wave measurements using both cabled and autonomous systems but also examined the feasibility of using HF Radar systems for remote estimation of wave parameters. The nearshore stations have provided a significant database on directional wave climate for a number of nearshore locations in the region that provide valuable information to coastal engineers and managers for sustainable development along the coast of the southeastern United States. The ability of …

Can The Battle Against Climate Change Become An Effective Social Movement?, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

No abstract provided.

Federal Energy Efficiency And Conservation Laws, John Dernbach, Marianne Tyrrell

John C. Dernbach

This paper provides an overview of U.S. law and policy concerning energy efficiency and conservation. The United States appears torn between two narratives - one expressing the abundant demonstrated opportunities provided by energy savings and the other based on a fear of deprivation from using less energy. Rather than choosing between the two, U.S. law and policy splits the difference - embracing efficiency and conservation more or less halfheartedly. Energy efficiency and conservation policy thus has a Groundhog Day aspect, in which the same or similar arguments are made year after year, decade after decade, and often (it appears) to …

The Essential And Growing Role Of Legal Education In Achieving Sustainability, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

This article suggests that law schools need to play a leading role in the national and global effort to achieve sustainability, including the effort to address climate change. The article first describes the various drivers for sustainability in law schools. Clients are increasingly demanding that their lawyers 'walk the talk,' as many businesses and corporations already are. The universities that provide an institutional home for most law schools are also adopting sustainability policies and practices that influence their law schools. Within the legal profession, the American Bar Association, as well as many state and local bar associations, have adopted a …

Wind-Speed Inversion From Hf Radar First-Order Backscatter Signal, W Shen, Klaus-Werner Gurgel, George Voulgaris, Thomas Schlick, D Stammer

George Voulgaris

Land-based high-frequency (HF) radars have the unique capability of continuously monitoring ocean surface environments at ranges up to 200 km off the coast. They provide reliable data on ocean surface currents and under slightly stricter conditions can also give information on ocean waves. Although extraction of wind direction is possible, estimation of wind speed poses a challenge. Existing methods estimate wind speed indirectly from the radar derived ocean wave spectrum, which is estimated from the secondorder sidebands of the radar Doppler spectrum. The latter is extracted at shorter ranges compared with the first-order signal, thus limiting the method to short …

Creating The Law Of Environmentally Sustainable Economic Development, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

This article argues that a key to sustainability is redirecting the law of economic development. From a historical perspective, sustainable development is an effort to integrate environmental protection and restoration with development. As a result, it is not possible to fully understand sustainable development unless we understand what development means. While that term is reasonably well understood at the international level, our closest analogue in the United States is not development in general but rather economic development. A great many recently enacted laws that move the United States toward sustainability can be understood as economic development laws. By understanding these …

The "Cash For Clunkers" Program: A Sustainability Evaluation, Marianne Tyrrell, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

This article describes and evaluates the effectiveness of the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009, also known as the “Cash for Clunkers” legislation. Under this law, Congress authorized persons trading in older and less fuel-efficient motor vehicles for newer and more fuel-efficient vehicles to receive a voucher worth up to $4,500 toward the purchase of the new vehicle. The article reviews various studies assessing the effectiveness of this legislation based on economic, social, and environmental criteria. Because these criteria are consistent with the goals of sustainable development, the legislation provides important lessons for future efforts to achieve …

Environmental Laws And Sustainability: An Introduction, John Dernbach, Joel Mintz

John C. Dernbach

In this introduction to the special issue of Sustainability on environmental laws and sustainability, we attempt to synthesize key lessons from the issue’s ten substantive articles. These lessons involve the use of law to achieve integrated decision-making, the use of pre-existing laws to foster sustainability, the centrality of sub-national governments in achieving sustainability, the background law of unsustainable development, the growing importance of climate change, the need to use law to protect and restore ecological integrity, the importance of judicial review and nongovernmental organizations, the need to translate sustainability into specific legal principles, the challenge of creating an appropriate national …

A Case History Of The Science And Management Collaboration In Understanding Hypoxia Events In Long Bay, South Carolina, Usa., Denise Sanger, Debra Hernandez, Susan Libes, George Voulgaris, Braxton Davis, Erik Smith, Rebecca Shufford, Dwayne Porter, Eric Koepfler, Joseph Bennet

George Voulgaris

Communication of knowledge between the scientific and management communities is a difficult process complicated by the distinctive nature of professional career goals of scientists and decision-makers. This article provides a case history highlighting a collaboration between the science and management communities that resulted from a response to a 2004 hypoxia, or low dissolved oxygen, event in Long Bay, off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A working group of scientists and decision-makers was established at the time of the event and has continued to interact to develop a firm understanding of the drivers responsible for hypoxia formation in Long Bay. Several factors …

Making The States Full Partners In A National Climate Change Effort: A Necessary Element For Sustainable Economic Development, John Dernbach, Robert Mckinstry, Thomas Peterson

John C. Dernbach

This article explains why states and localities need to be full partners in a national climate change effort based on federal legislation or the existing Clean Air Act. A large share of reductions with the lowest cost and the greatest co-benefits (e.g., job creation, technology development, reduction of other pollutants) are in areas that a federal cap-and-trade program or other purely federal measures will not easily reach. These are also areas where the states have traditionally exercised their powers—including land use, building construction, transportation, and recycling. The economic recovery and expansion will require direct state and local management of climate …

Agenda For A Sustainable America, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

No abstract provided.

An Agenda For Sustainable Communities, John Dernbach

John C. Dernbach

This article summarizes progress toward sustainable communities in the United States since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (or Earth Summit) in 1992. It shows the significant initiative that many communities have undertaken and identifies existing state and federal laws as impediments to achieving sustainability. This article also makes recommendations for further progress based on what we have already learned about how to achieve sustainable communities. They include not only more and strengthened sustainable community efforts, and broad state and federal legal support, but also deep engagement of all affected citizens. This article is based primarily on three …

Exploring The Persistence Of Sorted Bedforms On The Inner-Shelf Of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, Benjamin Gutierez, George Voulgaris, Robert Thieler

George Voulgaris

Geological studies offshore of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina reveal subtle large-scale regions of coarse sand with gravel and shell hash (widths between 100 and 200 m and negative relief of ∼1 m) that trend obliquely to the coast. It was previously suggested that these regions serve as conduits for sand exchange between the shoreface and inner shelf during storm-associated downwelling. Consequently they were classified as rippled scour depressions. More recently, the role of alongshore flows and self-organization as a result of inhibited settling of fine sand has been discussed. In this study, 45 days of near-bed current measurements were analyzed …

Effect Of Channel Bifurcation On Residual Estuarine Circulation: Winyah Bay, South Carolina, Yong Kim, George Voulgaris

George Voulgaris

The residual circulation pattern of Winyah Bay, the fourth largest estuary on the eastern coast of the US, is examined using stationary and shipborne current measurements during periods of low freshwater discharge. The estuary has a complex morphology with a single channel and narrow banks at the river entrance and the bay mouth, and a bifurcated channel system (main and western channels, respectively) in the middle part that appears to affect the residual circulation. Overall, the upper (single channel morphology) and middle (dual-channel morphology) parts of the estuary exhibit a baroclinic residual circulation. The presence of bifurcated channels in the …

Sustainable Development And Natural Governance: The Challenges Ahead, John Dernbach, Dan Tarlock

John C. Dernbach

No abstract provided.

Internal Waves Revealed By Synthetic Aperture Radar (Sar) Imagery In The Vicinity Of The Eastern Cretan Arc Straits (Eastern Mediterranean), Adonis Velegrakis, E. Oikonomou, A. Theocharis, M Collins, H Kontoyannis, V Papadopoulos, George Voulgaris, T. Wells, E. Balopoulos

George Voulgaris

Internal waves have been detected on ERS-1 SAR images obtained during late summer over the eastern Cretan Straits, an area characterised by complex regional physiography, bottom topography, flow regime and stratification patterns of the upper part of the water column. Analysis of the imaged characteristics of the internal waves has revealed a strong diversity in form, propagation direction and type of sea surface modulation, which indicates various mechanisms of generation. Analysis of the currents recorded over the area shows that, although semi-diurnal tidal currents are present, these are of low magnitude in comparison with the overall flow and, therefore, tidal …

The In Situ Passive Acoustic Measurement Of Shingle Movement Under Waves And Currents: Instrument (Tosca) Development And Preliminary Results, George Voulgaris, Michael Wilkin, Michael Collins

George Voulgaris

An instrumented platform (TOSCA) is described for monitoring coarse-grained sediment transport in high (wave and tidal) energy environments. The system consists of a number of sensors which measure: instantaneous current velocities at three levels; sea surface elevation; and self-generated noise (SGN) caused by intercollision of particles in transit. SGN is related to transport rates, on the basis of laboratory calibration; this, in turn, allows a correlation with simultaneous near-bed shear stress to be established. During the field measurements, PC-based real-time data transmission is realised through the use of a (buoyed) radio telemetry system.

TOSCA has been deployed in eastern Christchurch …