Property:Extended movie description
From CSDMS
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100 years of permafrost warming in Alaska.
This movie uses climate model data and soil mappings as input. The movie only shows the evolution of the mean annual temperature at 1 m depth for each gridcell. A significant warming can be seen. +
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A close up of bed load transportation with a still camera frame.
50g/m/s 7.0mm d50
50g/m/s 0.20mm d50
Grain Size ratio = 35 +
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A debris flow occurring in California. +
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A helicopter flies over a landslide scar in Maierato, Southern Italy.
Most of the sliding happened on February 15th, 2010, but the area is notorious for landsliding and the hillslope was moving previously as well.
This area of Italy, Calabria, is known for its landslides. Heavy rains preceded the event and caused ~100 other smaller slides in the region. +
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A high speed movie illustrating the formation of cyclic steps in an experimental drainage basin subject to constant base level fall (done to model a constant uplift of the basin). +
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A major landslide in Japan takes out part of the highway 168. The first coverage shows the vegetation sliding by the camera. Helicopter footage shows the landslide scar in the perspective of the river valley. The comments associated with this film indicate that two typhoons preceded this events. +
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A series of landslides occurred in late April and May 2012 in the headwaters of the Seti River. These caused a landslide dam wall, which blocked the normal flow of river. Seti river means 'White River', because it normally has the typical milky color of rivers that drain a glaciated area. However, because the river was bloked it was unusually clear, untill May 5th. Early in the morning of May 5th, 2012 a large rockfall occurred high on the ridgeline of the Annapurna massive, the rock and debris came down with tremendous force. Along its steep course the rock melted snow and ice and picked up more debris. This debris and te floodwave hit the dammed up Seti River and caused the earlier landslide dam to abruptly break.
The video shows the slurry of water and sediment traveling through the Seti River valley. The initial pulse of debris and hyperconcentrated muddy water damaged many houses and probably 72 people were killed. This region is conducive for these natural hazards, the relief is extremely high and avalanches and rockfalls are common. The downstream rivers have eroded into lake bed sediments and thus can easily erode more. Furthermore the monsoonal climate of the region can trigger unstabilities due to high rain events. +
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A small plane is flying around the ash cloud of Eyjafjalljokull. This footage was recorded on April 22nd, 2010, a few days after the second phase of the eruption started. The second phase of the eruption was in the centre of Eyjafjallajokull glacier. Although it was cloudy flying towards the glacier close to the center of the eruption the air warms up so much that clouds evaporate and you will get a glimpse of the slope of the vulcano.
Interesting to note the visible soundwaves from the explosions in the final section of the film..somehow caught by the sun glinting off steam emitted as the volcano melts the surrounding ice cap. +
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A small river confluence in Illinois with an asymmetrical confluence and a concordant bed.
The different cross-sections in the example focus on mixing of rivers with different water temperatures (thermal mixing). The large-scale engulfing by the ML eddies promotes mixing. The large-scale oscillations of SOV cells play an important role in the mixing between the two streams. +
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Animation of coastal beach formation during summer season. This cycle would be typical for for example beaches in California. +
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Animation of waves affecting a beach profile during winter. This animation is typical for example for California. +
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April 2010, a jökulhlaup resulting from the volcanic eruption near
Eyjafjallajökull.
This movie shows how the generated meltwater and debris spills out of side-gullies and along the valley wall. When the flow reaches the local valley bottom, the sandur surface it fans out. The helicopter flies low over the flow in the sandur plain and one can see standing waves being generated by the shallow fast-moving water. This is an indication that large bedforms are actively formed and migrating over the bottom. It can also been seen that even over the floodplain the flow has erosive effect and incises an estimated > 1,5 m banks. +
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BFM TV, a french television network (http://www.bfmtv.com/), captured spectacular footage of bluff failure occurring in coastal France. BFM TV reported that ~30,000 tons of material was moved.
Also discussed at:
http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/2013/07/23/rock-topple-france/
http://coastalcare.org/2013/07/normandy-cliff-collapses-onto-beach-at-st-jouin-bruneval/ +
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Barrier Islands migrate over the shelf in response to sea level changes. Here the sandy deposits that form the actual island, first prograde outward, during sea level fall and then retrograde when sea level is coming up again. +
Bed load transport due to moving water flowing over the bedload surface from multiple angles. All scenes are slowed down. The first is a mixture of 95% sand and 5% gravel. The second is a mixture of 80% sand and 20% gravel. The third is the same mixture. +
Bed load transportation with a moving camera frame.
50g/m/s 7.0mm d50
50g/m/s 0.20mm d50
Grain Size ratio = 35 +
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Bernhard Lehner (department of geography, at McGill University) and others worked for years together to establish a world database on reservoirs. Over 5000 reservoirs are included presently and presented over time in this visualization.
Data can be found at: http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/collection/grand-v1 +
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Bioturbation is the mixing of plant and other organic matter into soils and sediments by biotic activity. It is one of the fundamental processes in ecology, as it stimulates decomposition, creates habitats for other (micro)fauna and increases gas- and water flow through the soil.
This time lapse movie shows bioturbation by 3 earthworms species:
- Lumbricus terrestris (an ’anecic’ earthworm, feeding on leaves and living in deep vertical burrows; 2 individuals present)
- Lumbricus rubellus (an ’epigeic’ earthworm, feeding on leaves and living in shallow, non-permanent burrows; 2 individuals present)
- Aporrectodea caliginosa (an ‘endogeic’ earthworm, feeding on decomposed organic matter and living deeper in the soil; 3 individuals present).
Poplar leaves were applied on top of the soil as food for the earthworms. Different soil layers were simulated by mixing a topsoil (rich in organic matter) with quartz sand in various ratios.
The recording lasted 1 month.
This movie was made in collaboration with scientists from the Department of Soil Quality of Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
Soil screening: I.M. Lubbers & J.W. van Groenigen
Marie Curie Alumni: G.B. De Deyn
Microphonography: Urban Utan
Time lapse photography © Wim van Egmond - 2014
With the support of the Marie Curie Alumni Association +
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CHILD model simulation of a meandering river in its floodplain. The meander migrates through the floodplain, depositing channel sands in its bed.
Associated movies are shown here: https://csdms.colorado.edu/wiki/Model:CHILD +
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CU Science update featured a short movie on 'Sinking Deltas'.
There is a widespread need to assess the vulnerability of the world’s population living in low-lying deltas to flooding, whether from intense rainfall, rivers or from hurricane-induced storm surges. High-resolution NASA SRTM topography data and MODIS satellite data along with georeferenced historical map analysis allows quantification of the extent of low-lying delta areas and the role of humans in contributing to their vulnerability. Thirty-three major deltas collectively include ~26,008 km2 of area below local mean sea level and ~96,000 km2 of vulnerable area below 2 m a.s.l. This vulnerable area may increase 50% under projected 21st Century eustatic sea level rise. Analysis of river sediment load data and of topographical changes show that these densely populated, intensively farmed landforms, that often host key economic structures, have been destabilized by human-induced accelerated sediment compaction due to water, oil and gas mining, and by reductions of incoming sediment from upstream dams and reservoirs and floodplain engineering. +
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Credits to:<br>
Albert Kettner, CU - INSTAAR<br>
Greg Fiske, WHRC<br>
Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink, WHOI<br>
The animation shows the size of river drainage basins, or watersheds, scaled to the mass of sediment transported by the rivers to the coastal oceans. The color code (upper right corner) corresponds to million tons (Mt) of sediment per week. The time bar on the bottom shows the progression throughout the year. The sun symbol on the map shows the movement of the high-point of the sun throughout the seasons as an alternative time marker. +
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Cuspate spits are here simulated with the Coastline Evolution Model (CEM) of Andrew Ashton.
Sediment transport occurs under the influence of longshore transport that is driven by wave action.
Coastal spits form and built out with time, the colors are coded for depositional age.
In this particular animation the incoming far-field wave distribution is weighted so that high angles with the shoreline are dominant, and the wave direction is predominantly from the left. +
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Daily estimates of the sea ice concentration based on remotely-sensed passive microwave data for 2009. The red colors are 100% sea ice, whereas the blue colors show sea ice free conditions (also called open water). +
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Emplacement of the topset by braided streams in an experimental fan-delta undergoing subsidence. Most significant alluvial processes are labeled. +
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Erosion process and river response caused by the sudden removal of a sediment dam, top view. +
Erosion process and river response caused by the sudden removal of a sediment dam, front view. +
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Evolution of river valley landscape, stratigraphy, and geoarchaeology, Channel Sands (Transverse Section) +
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Expansion of Sea Ice Free Days from 1920-2100
Sea ice covers large regions of the Arctic Ocean. At present, the northernmost waters remains frozen all year, in other regions seawater freezes every year when temperatures drop in October-November, and the sea ice thaws again when solar radiation is intense and long days prevail in the early summer.
This sea ice dataset shows how long the ‘open water season’ lasts for any location in the Arctic region. The duration of open water is relevant for ecosystem and coastal processes, and human activities such as shipping, industrial development, fishing and indigenous mammal hunting.
Maps of the open water season over 1920-2100 are calculated averaging output of 30 simulations of the Community Earth System Model (CESM). This climate model describes the physical processes of the atmosphere, ocean, land surface and sea ice and their interactions. For historical times, 1920-2005 in this specific case, the model can be forced by real-world observations of incoming solar radiation and concentrations of greenhouse gasses and aerosols. For the future, 2005-2100, a scenario has to be chosen; scientists have precisely defined a suite of different scenarios called ‘Representative Concentration Pathways’. The model simulations analyzed here used the ‘RCP 8.5’ scenario, which assumes that greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise throughout the 21st century.
Sea ice can be seen to cover large parts of the Arctic in the mid-20th century. For example, at that time the open water season is as short as 2 month along the Alaskan and Siberian coasts. Other parts of the Arctic Ocean remain frozen all year, such as the Canadian Archipelago, where explorers stranded in the ice many times.
Over the duration of the simulation global warming causes the open water season to vastly expand. The retreat of sea ice has started already in the late 20th century, and scientists have observed with satellites the expansion of the open water season over the last 35 years. The model predicts that by 2050, the entire Arctic coastal region will experience 60 additional days of ice-free conditions.
A longer open water season triggers coastal change, because longer exposure to waves and storm surges cause erosion of the Arctic permafrost coast. Acceleration of erosion and coastal flooding is to be expected with the expansion of the open water season. Coastal villages in Arctic Alaska may need to be better protected or relocated in the future.
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Floodplain evolution, Sediment age distribution in subsurface +
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Fluvial deposition with minimal plume and wave reworking. Note the resulting highly stratified sediment deposition. +
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Footage of the rapid outflow of water through the breach in the Mississippi River levee at Birds Point-New Madrid. On May 3, 2011 the US Army Corps of Engineers blasted a breach into the levee protecting the Bird's Point-New Madrid floodway, flooding 530 km2 of crops and farmland in Mississippi County, Missouri. The breach was induced to save Cairo, IL (population ~3000) at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi River and the rest of the levee system, from floodwaters. The breach displaced around 200 residents of Missouri's Mississippi and New Madrid counties, at the same time the city of Cairo was evacuated for safety, but remained unharmed. +
Footage of the second set of detonations applied to breach the levee at Birds Point-New Madrid.On May 3-4, 2011 the US Army Corps of Engineers blasted a breach into the levee protecting the Bird's Point-New Madrid floodway, flooding 530 km2 of crops and farmland in Mississippi County, Missouri. The breach was induced to save Cairo, IL (population ~3000) at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi River and the rest of the levee system, from floodwaters. The breach displaced around 200 residents of Missouri's Mississippi and New Madrid counties, at the same time the city of Cairo was evacuated for safety, but remained unharmed. +
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Gravity currents move over different bedform topography, ranging from a flat bed to dunes and ribs. These experiments were conducted to evaluate the capacity of gravity currents to propagate over an array of identical obstacles to entrain sediment from the loose channel bed and to carry it downstream for some distance in the form of a turbidity current.
First you can see how the structure, front velocity, energy balance and sediment entrainment capacity of a compositional gravity current is affected by the presence of the obstacles, and then you can see the effect of the shape and size of the obstacles. +
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Here we see an aerial view of the massive floodwaters draining over the coastal plain/sandur in Iceland.
This jokhulhlaup is associated with the volcanic eruption of April, 2010.
The 2nd Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption in south Iceland for 2010. It started on 14.04.2010. GPS coordinates of the eruption: 63.629° N, 19.630° W. Video by Icelandic National TV station RÚV. Music by Ceiri Torjussen;
The movie show the shallow floodwater washing over the main highway of Iceland, and washing it out in several places. There was extensive damage to farm field and local houses of the debris/ash.
The shallowness of the water can also be seen from the standing waves (again). +
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Humans have manipulated rivers for thousands of years, but over the last 200 years dams on rivers have become rampant. Reservoirs and dams are constructed for water storage, to reduce the risk of river flooding, and for the generation of power. They are one of the major footprints of humans on Earth and change the world’s hydrological cycle.
This dataset illustrates the construction of dams worldwide from 1800 to the present. We display all dams listed in the Global Reservoir and Dam Database (GRanD). It includes 6,862 records of reservoirs and their associated dams. All dams that have a reservoir with a storage capacity of more than 0.1 cubic kilometers are included, and many smaller dams were added where data were available. The total amount of water stored behind these dams sums to 6,2 km3.
The red dots indicate the newly built dams and reservoirs each year, and the yellow dots represent the dams already in place.
The dams and reservoirs do not only store water, they also trap the incoming sediment that the river transports. Consequently, much less sand and clay travels to the coast, where it would normally be depositing in the delta region. The reduced sediment load of major rivers has influenced the vulnerability of many deltas worldwide.
Japan built many dams already in the early 19th century. Another early hotspot for dam construction was the US East Coast, where many medium-sized dams were constructed for grain milling and saw mills.
In the 20th century, large engineering projects developed dams in more arid regions for drinking water and irrigation water storage, and worldwide for electric power generation. Most recently, large construction projects have been completed in China, including the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. +
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Hurricane Ike developed in early September and passed over Cuba. It did heavy damage in Cuba (it was one of the most expensive hurricanes for that country ever). Ike developed in a category 2 hurricane and made landfall near Galveston, TX on September 13th, 2008.
This animation shows results of a Delft3D simulation to study the effects of Hurricane Ike (2008) on the Wax Lake delta in Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana (USA). The model domain is 25 by 30km.
The movie shows salinity before, during and after this hurricane event.
Water in the Wax lake delta is relatively fresh, during the entire period there was continuous river discharge being fed into the delta system. The river discharge is more important during high tides and storm events when brackish water progrades into the delta then under normal conditions. This is the pulsing of the system you can see in the beginning of the simulation. Hurricane Ike pushed saline water into the delta (the red color), at the peak of the event the entire delta was submerged and the salinity approached 20-25 ppt. Note that saline water persisted long in some of the Wax lake wetlands: even on the 18th of September, 5 days after the actual landfall there is still high salinity. This had a major effect on the wetland vegetation and would kill some of the freshwater species on the islands. +
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Hurricane Rita was an intense tropical cyclone, which occurred in September 2005, a few weeks after hurricane Katrina. It was a really intense event, with high sustained winds (upto 38 m/s) and waves in the Gulf of Mexico were observed to be over 6 m high. The hurricane made landfall in Texas on September 24th, directly west of the area shown in this simulation.
This animation shows results of a Delft3D simulation to study the effects of Hurricane Rita on the Wax Lake delta in Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana (USA). The model domain is 25 by 30km. We are showing a set of parameters of this hurricane event to compare the erosion and sedimentation that occurred cumulatively over the entire event (this animation), the water level and wave height (other animations in the EKT repository). Sedimentation or erosion of sand in the Wax lake delta is rather low under normal conditions, perhaps a few cm's transported by the fastest ebb and flood tide currents.
On September 24th 2005 hurricane Rita approaches and sedimentation and erosion become much more dramatic. When the hurricane makes landfall, the delta is inundated by 2-3 m of water and waves become as high as 1.6m. Bottom shear stress is then high and sediment can be easily transported. Note that erosion and sedimentation happen simultaneously; near the edges of channels there is rapid erosion (upto 40 cm over the entire storm), while nearby sediments are being deposited on the islands and bars. The erosion and sedimentation pattern is influenced by the exact storm track of this particular hurricane, the angle at which the waves apporach the coast determine the areas of most rapid change. +
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Hurricane Rita was an intense tropical cyclone, which occurred in September 2005. It was a really intense event, with high sustained winds (upto 38 m/s) and waves in the Gulf of Mexico were observed to be over 6 m high. The hurricane made landfall in Texas on September 24th, directly west of the area shown in this simulation.
This animation shows results of a Delft3D simulation to study the effects of Hurricane Rita on the Wax Lake delta in Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana (USA). The model domain is 25 by 30km.
We are showing a set of parameters of this hurricane event to compare the water level (this animation), the wave height and the erosion and deposition in the delta (other animations in the EKT repository). The water level in the Wax lake delta varies with the tidal cycle in the Atchafalaya Bay, you can see the tides flooding the delta and small islands and bars emerging during low tide.
On September 24th 2005 hurricane Rita approaches and sets down the water, then the eye passes and the delta is inundated by 2-3 m of water. +
Hurricane Rita was an intense tropical cyclone, which occurred in September 2005, a few weeks after hurricane Katrina. It was a really intense event, with high sustained winds (upto 38 m/s) and waves in the Gulf of Mexico were observed to be over 6 m high. The hurricane made landfall in Texas on September 24th, directly west of the area shown in this simulation.
This animation shows results of a Delft3D simulation to study the effects of Hurricane Rita on the Wax Lake delta in Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana (USA). The model domain is 25 by 30km. We are showing a set of parameters of this hurricane event to compare the significant wave height (this animation), the water level and the erosion and deposition in the delta (other animations in the EKT repository).
This simulation explores the effect of vegetation on the islands in the delta. In the accompanying simulation vegetation was ignored, for this particular run vegetation is introduced as a roughness coefficient (vegetation is modeled based on 'cylinders' present in the flowing water).
The wave height in the Wax lake delta is rather low under normal conditions as you can see in the beginning of the animation. At high tide, wave heights may be a few 10's of cm's. On September 24th 2005 hurricane Rita approaches and sets down the water, wave heights are then still low. But when the hurricane makes landfall closeby, the delta is inundated by 2-3 m of water and waves become as high as 1.5m. Note that the waves are highest in the main channels of the delta (because the water is deeper there). You can see the effect of vegetation is small, the waves on the islands are only dampened slightly. The effect of vegetation is not as important for waves during a hurricane as it is during some more moderate storms. +
Hurricane Rita was an intense tropical cyclone, which occurred in September 2005, a few weeks after hurricane Katrina. It was a really intense event, with high sustained winds (upto 38 m/s) and waves in the Gulf of Mexico were observed to be over 6 m high. The hurricane made landfall in Texas on September 24th, directly west of the area shown in this simulation.
This animation shows results of a Delft3D simulation to study the effects of Hurricane Rita on the Wax Lake delta in Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana (USA). The model domain is 25 by 30km. We are showing a set of parameters of this hurricane event to compare the significant wave height (this animation), the water level and the erosion and deposition in the delta (other animations in the EKT repository). The wave height in the Wax lake delta is rather low under normal conditions as you can see in hte beginningof the animation. At high tide, wave heights may be a few 10's of cm's. On September 24th 2005 hurricane Rita approaches and sets down the water, wave heights are then still low. But when the hurricane makes landfall closeby, the delta is inundated by 2-3 m of water and waves become as high as 1.6m. Note that the waves are highest in the main channels of the delta (because the water is deeper there). +
Hurricane Rita was an tropical cyclone, which occurred in September 2005. It was a really intense event, with high sustained winds (upto 38 m/s) and waves in the Gulf of Mexico were observed to be over 12 m high. The hurricane made landfall in Texas on September 24th.
This animation shows results of a Delft3D-SWAN simulation to study the effects of Hurricane Rita. The simulations were intended to model effect on the Wax Lake delta, as small delta in Atchafalaya Bay. Louisiana, USA. To simulate details in this small region a larger grid for the entire Gulf of Mexico had to be simulate to make sure the boundary conditions for the smaller-scale experiment were accurate. This method of nesting a detailed model experiment into a large scale modeling omain is commonly needed in coastal and estuarine modeling (and in weather modeling as well).
The Gulf of Mexico hydrodynamics model is driven by yet another set of large-scale modeling and observational data on tides and driven by winds. Tides are ingested at the at the ocean boundaries based on results from the TPXO 7.2 Global Inverse Tide Model (http://volkov.oce.orst.edu/tides/TPXO7.2.html). The input for the wind field with a spatial resolution of 0.05° and a temporal resolution of 15 minutes, comes from the combination of NOAA Hurricane Research Division Wind Analysis System (H*WIND, Powell et al., 1998), and the Interactive Objective Kinematic Analysis (IOKA) kinematic wind analysis Cox et al., 1995). Lastly, bathymetry is derived from the Louisiana Virtual Coast Data Archive (http://virtual-coast.c4g.lsu.edu/), in which NOAA’s bathymetry sounding database, the Digital Nautical Charts database, and the 5-minute gridded elevations/bathymetry for the world (ETOPO5) database are combined.
Here we show the SWAN model results for the large-scale modeling domain; it is roughly 800 by 700 km. You can see how Hurricane Rita approaches as an "eye" traveling through the Gulf of Mexico. The wave heights generated due to the storm are tremendously high!
On September 24th 2005 hurricane Rita approaches the coast and wave heights break in the shallower water.
Hurricane Rita was an tropical cyclone, which occurred in September 2005. It was a really intense event, with high sustained winds (upto 38 m/s) and waves in the Gulf of Mexico were observed to be over 6 m high. The hurricane made landfall in Texas on September 24th.
This animation shows results of a Delft3D simulation to study the effects of Hurricane Rita. The simulations were intended to model effect o the Wax Lake delta, as small delta in Atchafalaya Bay. Louisiana, USA. To simulate details in this small region a larger grid for the entire Gulf of Mexico had to be simulate to make sure the boundary conditions for the smaller-scale experiment were accurate. This method of nesting a detailed model experiment into a large scale modeling omain is commonly needed in coastal and estuarine modeling (and in weather modeling as well).
The Gulf of Mexico hydrodynamics model is driven by yet another set of large-scale modeling and observational data on tides and driven by winds.
Tides are ingested at the at the ocean boundaries based on results from the TPXO 7.2 Global Inverse Tide Model (http://volkov.oce.orst.edu/tides/TPXO7.2.html). The input for the wind field with a spatial resolution of 0.05° and a temporal resolution of 15 minutes, comes from the combination of NOAA Hurricane Research Division Wind Analysis System (H*WIND, Powell et al., 1998), and the Interactive Objective Kinematic Analysis (IOKA) kinematic wind analysis Cox et al., 1995). Lastly, bathymetry is derived from the Louisiana Virtual Coast Data Archive (http://virtual-coast.c4g.lsu.edu/), in which NOAA’s bathymetry sounding database, the Digital Nautical Charts database, and the 5-minute gridded elevations/bathymetry for the world (ETOPO5) database are combined.
Here we show results for the large-scale modeling domain; it is roughly 800 by 700 km. You can see how Hurrican Rita approaches as an "eye" traveling through the Gulf of Mexico. On September 24th 2005 hurricane Rita approaches the coast and sets down the water, then the eye passes and the coast experiences a high water level of ~2 m of water due to the storm surge.
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In general, trees roots help prevent erosion from small erosion events. However, when really high winds occur, trees can be uprooted and cause a big disturbance of the soil/surface.
This video shows a tree being battered by high winds, probably near 130 km/hr, during the landfall of Hurrican Sandy. When a hurricane makes landfall wind speeds are reduced compared to the winds speed above the ocean water surface, still, the wind speeds in the coastal zone can be very high. You can see the grass mat in the backyard of a home in Long Island ripping by the shallow rooted large tree that is falling over. Not how much sediment is brought up with the root mass.
Numerical models have been designed to capture this process (a model called TreeThrow features in the CSDMS model repository). +
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In this animation global precipitation is measured in millimeters and averaged by month for a year. The shift in monthly averaged precipitation due to seasonal changes is apparent as the monsoon season comes to Western India and the Bay of Bengal region starting in June. Additionally the areas of high, year round precipitation resulting in the tropical climates can be seen and easily contrasted with the areas of little to no rain resulting in more arid climates. The global air circulation that results in the precipitation patterns seen in this movie can be seen in the Global Circulation movie. +
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Effects of high horizontal displacement rates on landscape evolution & pull-apart basins formation +
In this example, we impose over 2 millions of years a deformation field produced with Underworld over an initial flat surface (256 km square box at a resolution of 1 km). Over the deformed surface, a landscape evolution model, Badlands, is used to simulate both hillslope (creep) and overland flow processes (detachment limited) induced by an uniform precipitation rate of 1 m/yr (surface process resolution lower around 250 m).
The continuous 3D deformation field from Underworld is imported every 5000 years in Badlands as an average displacement rate (horizontal & vertical). The geodynamics model boundary conditions forces the formation of pull-apart basins. The internal structure of these basins is highly variable both in space and time owing to complex stress fields and heterogeneous crustal rheology around the termination of the delimiting faults. This complexity has led to several unresolved problems regarding the kinematics and dynamics of pull-apart basins.
Using the coupling between Badlands and Underworld it is now possible to test the time-dependent deformation patterns within pull-apart basins, and the relation of these basins with the adjacent deformed structural domains. +
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Jacobshavn Glacier is one of the largest tide-water glaciers of Greenland. It is located on the West-coast, and drains into Disco Bay.
The movie shows a calving event recorded on the 5th of June, 2007. Tremendous ice blocks calve off the active calving front of the glacier. The glacier always moves fast; at about 20m /day, and calving happens continously. Amundson et al., report 32 large events within 1 year, mostly in the period May to August.
This event is gigantic, to give an idea of scale; the calving front above water is ~100m high, below water there is another 900m hidden. The blocks that break off are about 1000m wide and a few 100m in the downflow direction. The triangular block that you see overtopple in this movie sticks 200 m out of the water! +
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Long stretches of permafrost coast in the Arctic region consist of ice-rich sediments. These permafrost areas have been experiencing rapid warming over the last decades. The warming melts the permafrost, but it also exposes the coast longer to the forces of the ocean because the sea-ice free season has expanded.
This particular simulation shows the permafrost coast near DrewPoint, along the Alaskan Beaufort Sea.
At Drew Point, there are nowadays about twice as many days of open water than in the late 1970's. The simulation calculates the distance to the sea ice edge, which is 100's of kilometers in August.
This means that storms can generate larger waves during that time of the year. Also when a storm passes and there are sustained winds, water will be 'set up' against the coast. You can see this increase in teh water level in the movie.
Absorped heat in the ocean water melts the ice in the toppled block. The bluff is approximately 4.5 m high. The block is not necessarily eroded by waves, but also just by melt ( this is called - thermal erosion). The warm sea water needs to touch the block and then rapid melt will occur. The massive block disappears in about a week. +
Long stretches of permafrost coast in the Arctic region consist of ice-rich sediments. These permafrost areas have been experiencing rapid warming over the last decades. The warming melts the permafrost, but it also exposes the coast longer to the forces of the ocean because the sea-ice free season has expanded.
This particular movie shows the permafrost coast near DrewPoint, along the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. At Drew Point, there are nowadays about twice as many days of open water than in the late 1970's. This results in more absorption of heat in the ocean water. The bluff is approximately 4.5 m high, and the block in the movies is about 13 m long. The block is not necessarily eroded by waves, but also just by melt ( this is called - thermal erosion). The warm sea water needs to touch the block and then rapid melt will occur. The massive block disappears in about a week. +
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Meteorological offices worldwide forecast ocean wave heights for the shipping and fisheries industry. In the United States, NOAA's National Weather Service provides the wave forecasts. Just like in weather forecasting, scientists run numerical models to make these predictions.
This movie shows wave height calculations of a wave model called ‘WAVEWATCH III’. The movie shows 3 hourly model output over October 1st – October 31st, 2012.
On October 22nd 2012, the storm system Sandy started forming in the Caribbean Sea and moved towards the Antilles while intensifying. By Oct 24th, Sandy became a hurricane and made landfall near Kingston, Jamaica. Passing over land weakened the storm for some time, but winds picked up and hit Cuba and the Bahamas on Oct 25th. Again, the storm system briefly weakened and then strengthened again. On Oct 29th, Hurricane Sandy took an unusual course and started curving North-Northwest and moved ashore in New Jersey, affecting New York City.
The entire storm system was exceptionally large with high winds spanning a diameter of 1800 km (1100 miles). This large diameter meant really high waves could develop.
The WAVEWATCH III simulations show that the highest significant waves were 13.7m in the open ocean. At the New York harbor entrance, where some of the highest waves have already broken in shallower water, a buoy recorded wave heights of over 9m (32 ft).
In addition to the high local waves, storm surge increases the water level during hurricanes. Increasing water levels are caused both by the low pressure associated with a hurricane and with the water being pushed towards shore and being piled up. The storm surge for Hurricane Sandy increased sea level an additional 10ft near Manhattan, making the waves more impactful and causing much coastal flooding.
High winds, rain and snow, storm surge flooding and high waves caused loss of lives and extensive damage. Over the affected countries almost 150 people were killed. In the USA alone, about 570,000 buildings were heavily damaged. Many beaches along the Eastern US seaboard were eroded by the high waves. Throughout 24 states, there were 8.6 million power outages, trains did not run anymore and 20,000 flights were cancelled. The storm caused extensive flooding in lower Manhattan
Notable Features
• The storm system Sandy traveled over the Greater Antilles, Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas and then curved back Northwest to make landfall near New York City.
• Hurricane Sandy was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record with a diameter of 1800 km.
• Wind speeds during Sandy were as high as 185 km/hr
• WAVEWATCH III calculated wave heights as high as 13.7m.
• Many lives were lost, approximately 148 people were killed in the affected region.
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Meteorological offices worldwide forecast ocean wave heights for the shipping and fisheries industry. In the United States, NOAA's National Weather Service provides the wave forecasts. Just like in weather forecasting, scientists run numerical models to make these predictions.
This movie shows wave power calculations of one of the most commonly used wave models, called ‘WAVEWATCH III®’. WAVEWATCH III® uses global and regional wind data to calculate wind-driven waves every three hours. The model also takes into account the travel of waves beyond the edges of a storm system, the waves still continue to advance even when winds are diminished. These waves decrease in steepness and are called ‘swells’ and keep traveling for large distances. Swells propagate to faraway shorelines where there is no wind.
Notable Features
During the northern hemisphere winter, the most intense wave activity is located in the central North Pacific south of the Aleutian Islands, and in the central North Atlantic south of Iceland.
During the southern hemisphere winter, intense wave activity circumscribes the pole at around 50°S, with 5 m significant wave heights typical in the southern Indian Ocean.
You can identify the areas of coast that receive high wave power, like Australia, the West-coast of Southern France, Spain and Portugal, and the West Coast of the USA.
If you see this pattern it comes as no surprise that the current engineering experiments to harvest wave energy as a source of alternative energy are in those regions (Portugal, Orkney Islands, Scotland, Oregon, USA and along the Australian coast near Perth). +
Meteorological offices worldwide forecast ocean wave heights for the shipping and fisheries industry. In the United States, NOAA's National Weather Service provides the wave forecasts. Just like in weather forecasting, scientists run numerical models to make these predictions.
Wind blowing across the ocean surface generates most ocean waves. Waves just transmit energy; the water itself does not travel with the passing of the energy. The water particles simply move up and backwards, up and forward, down and forward and finally down and backward with the passing of a wave form. This motion gives ocean waves their name: orbital waves.
This movie shows wave height calculations of one of the most commonly used predictive models, called ‘WAVEWATCH III®’. WAVEWATCH III® uses global and regional wind data to calculate wind-driven waves every three hours.
We measure wave height, H, as the distance between the wave crest and trough. Note that waves come in fields containing a large variety of heights; the wave height distribution. To describe the wave field with a single number scientists use the ‘Significant Wave Height’. The Significant Wave Height Hs, is the mean wave height of the one-third highest waves in the wave field. This measure is the closest to what a sailor on a ship would estimate as ‘the average wave height’. Apparently our eyes are drawn to see the larger waves. This movie shows the significant wave height every 3 hours, worldwide for the year 2012.
Notable Features
• During the northern hemisphere winter, the most intense wave activity is located in the central North Pacific south of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska and in the central North Atlantic south of Iceland.
• During the southern hemisphere winter, intense wave activity circumscribes the South Pole at around 50°S, with 5 m significant wave heights being typical in the southern Indian Ocean.
• In the summer and early fall, it is peak hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean, because the temperature difference between the continent and ocean is the largest. The 2012 Atlantic hurricane season was very active; there were 19 named tropical storms and hurricanes. The earliest storms happened already in May 2012.
• Hurricane Sandy was the deadliest and costliest hurricane of 2012, it formed on October 22nd 2012. In total, the 2012 storms caused 355 known fatalities and nearly $71 billion in damage.
• The highest predicted significant wave height was 17m in 2012, but much higher waves occur occasionally in the open ocean.
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Ocean conditions near Galveston, Texas shortly before the landfall of Hurricane Ike.
The swell generated by this storm event can be seen by following this link to WAVEWATCH III^TM run. The storm is visible in the Gulf of Mexico on September 13th and 14th.
https://csdms.colorado.edu/wiki/Movie:WAVEWATCH_III_model_run_Sep_2008_to_Nov_2008 +
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One can see a big block calving of a tidewater glacier front. A tidewater glacier ends in a body of water, in this case Disko Bay in Western Greenland. The ice that calves of the glacier front forms floating icebergs.
Calving happens rapidly. One can often hear a crackling or booming noise and then see the ice tumble into the ocean. The ice mass can be extremely large, and this produce significant waves.
This movie was made from a boat sailing through the fjord. +
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Overview of the tsunami affecting the bay and city of Sendai, Japan. There is footage of ships being rolled over, cars being picked up and flooding of the nearby farmfield and city.
It is estimated that the tsunami was about 3-4 m high when it hit the shoreline, and it traveled upto 10 km inland.
This tsunami was generated by a 8.9 magnitude earthquake in the Pacific Ocean on March 11th, 2011. The epicenter of the earthquake was 130km offshore of Sendai. +
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Pomme de Terre River incision/aggradation history +
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Progressive incision of tidal channel networks in a theoretical domain, which is assumed to be surrounded by channels. The initial outlet is set to be in the middl of the lower boundary, the two other inlets are determined by internal dynamics.
The water surface gradients are driving erosion, and headward incision takes place as long as local shear stress due to tidal expansion exceeds a threshold stress. +
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River meander development with respect to time in an area of relatively low slope angle. +
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Rivers draining the West Greenland Ice Sheet are highly dynamic braided rivers. The water is of a milky color, because of the glacial flour it carries in suspension. In addition, the flow velocities are high and sound of coarse, cobble-sized bedload clashing into each other at the bed is evident. Banks and bars consist of a mix of cobbles, pebbles and fine sandy to silty material. The river is shallow. +
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Sand ripple migration, shown at various speeds. The ripples are generally climbing and processes such as avalanching, scour pit formation and merging of bedforms can be seen. +
Sheet flow style bed load transportation with colored marker stones. In this form of bed load transport a portion of the bed moves as a unified sheet. +
Shore line modeling taking coastal erosion and depositional processes into account. Beach profile follows the sea level and barrier islands form during transgression. +
Shore line modeling without coastal processes. The beach profile does not migrate and barrier islands do not form. +
Shoreline Transgression & Regression. This movie shows the relationship between delta building and basin subsidence. The sediment make up of this experiment is fine grained quartz and coal sand. The lighter coal sand moves farther into the basin, acting as a proxy for finer grained sediment in real systems. Key features and events are labeled throughout the movie. +
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Simulation of ANUGA, a hydrodynamics model. This simulation used data of many rainfall gauges in the Boulder Creek watershed. It then calculated the infiltration of the water, and the remaining water drained as runoff to the main tributary streams and ultimately North and South Boulder Creek into teh Eastern Plains. There are two pulses of rainfall visible moving through the system. +
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Simulation of fluvial incision in the shelf during a glacial-interglacial sea level cycle. This simulation represents the East Coast of the US, i.e. close to Chesapeak Bay and Delaware Bay. During lowstand, at glacial maximum the entire shelf is actively incised and reworked by fluvial systems. +
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Simulation of hydrodynamics with ANUGA. +
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Simulation of river bedform by large eddy simulation (LES), and sediment as spherical particles.
Related papers are:
doi: 10.1002/wrcr.20457
doi: 10.1002/wrcr.20303
doi: 10.1029/2012WR011911 +
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Standard river plume formation without the effects of coastal processes. The the color scale shows the separation of different grain sizes where larger, heavier particles settle out first, and spread on the sea floor. +
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Subglacial discharge simulated for Gornergletscher: arrows depict discharge in the distributed system, blue shows discharge in channels. +
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The Cook Inlet, an estuary adjacent to Northern Pacific Ocean experiences very large tidal range. Dr. Mark Johnson at University of Alaska-Fairbank (UAF) and Dr. Andrey Proshuntinsky at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), applied the Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM) to this environment to better understand the dramatic tides present.
https://csdms.colorado.edu/wiki/Model:FVCOM +
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The HSTAR model is developed to investigate the morphological change in large=-scale river systems. It uses the shallow water equations and nested sediment transport and erosion algorithms to control the changes in the river due to varying water transport. The model has a unique ability to mimick the growth of vegetation on river bars that are not inundated anymore.
This simulation runs for 350 years (in modeled time) and you can see the river system evolve. First there are just mid channel bars, then a river with multiple channel treads evolves. This pattern is commonly observed in nature (for example in the Amazon Basin). You can also see bend migration and bar cutt-offs once the river system rreaches a more stable pattern. +
The HSTAR model is developed to investigate the morphological change in large-scale river systems. It uses the shallow water equations and nested sediment transport and erosion algorithms to control the changes in the river due to varying water transport. The model has a unique ability to mimick the growth of vegetation on river bars that are not inundated anymore. This simulation runs for 350 years (in modeled time) and you can see the river system evolve. This simulation is set up for a coarse-grained sediment (grainsize 0.4 mm).
In the simulation mid channel bars form and persist. This pattern is commonly observed in nature (perhaps a close example is the Brahmaputra river). You can also see bar migration, compound bar evolution (where bars are merging). New deposition happens in the leeward side of vegetated bars, where flow velocities are lower.
These simulations have a feedback between the growth of vegetation and bar accretion- the vegetated bars will experience slower flow rates and thus more sediment can settle on top of them. +
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The Rio Puerco is a major tributary to the Rio Grande in New Mexico, USA. It is presently an incised arroyo system, with ephemeral flow. Significant river flow only occurs when large rain storms hit the drainage basin, in other times of the year it is a dry river bed with stagnant pools.
The incised river valley has extensive coverage of Tamarisk Trees, an invasive species. In 2003 a section of the river system was sprayed with herbicides and vegetation died off. These simulations investigate the effect of varying vegetation coverage in the river system.
In August 2006, a large rain event occurred and a peak flow was observed at the river observation stations. The simulations show how the river water depth for those flood conditions vary at 0% vegetation, at 10% and at 20% vegetation coverage. You can see the channel system incised and with a single thread channel that meanders and then water spilling into chute channels and adjacent floodplain basins. +
The Rio Puerco is a major tributary to the Rio Grande in New Mexico, USA. It is presently an incised arroyo system, with ephemeral flow. Significant river flow only occurs when large rain storms hit the drainage basin, in other times of the year it is a dry river bed with stagnant pools. The incised river valley has extensive coverage of Tamarisk Trees, an invasive species. In 2003 a section of the river system was sprayed with herbicides and vegetation died off. These simulations investigate the effect of varying vegetation coverage in the river system.
In August 2006, a large rain event occurred and a peak flow was observed at the river observation stations. The simulations show how the sedimentation for those flood conditions vary at 0% vegetation, at 10% and at 20% vegetation coverage. You can see the channel system eroded deeply (red) in the barren river system and how both the sedimentation (in blue) and erosion (in red) is much reduced in the more vegetated floodplain. +
The Rio Puerco is a tributary to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. It is a an 'ephemeral' river, meaning that it only runs water once there are larger rainstorms in its watershed, in dry times the riverbed is dry or has only small stagnant ponds of water. The small river is incised into its old floodplain and forms a small arroyo system.
The river has been monitored already for a really long time, there has been a gauging station at teh location of the movie (at the Santa Fe railroad crossing) since 1913.
This movie shows the incised river system. You can see from the photo what the river looks like in dry conditions (April 2014). The movie shows the floodwater in the incised arroyo, the 8m-12m tall Tamarix trees barely stick out of the water. On September 15, 2015, the water even overtopped the valley and gushed into the nearby farm field, and water overflowed the highway.
As you can see, the floodwater is extremely muddy. This small river was a major sediment source into the Rio Grande in the early 20th century. It impacted the downstream reservoir at Elephant Butte. Tamarix, an invasive tree species, was introduced in the 1930's to reduce the sediment load of this river. +
The Rio Puerco is a tributary to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. It is a an 'ephemeral' river, meaning that it only runs water once there are larger rainstorms in its watershed, in dry times the riverbed is dry or has only small stagnant ponds of water. The small river is incised into its old floodplain and forms a small arroyo system. The river has been monitored already for a really long time, there has been a gauging station near the location of the movie (at the Santa Fe railroad crossing) since 1913. The flood of 2013 was exceptionally high.
This movie shows the water running in the nearby old floodplain. You can see from the photo what this location looks like in dry conditions (April 2014). On September 15, 2015, the water overtopped the incised riverbed and gushed into the nearby farm field, and water overflowed the highway.
The river water once it is in the floodplain and not in its main channel experiences more friction and flow is not as fast anymore. Still, the water has enough carrying capacity to transport fine sediment. +
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The animation shows the modeled evolution of the subglacial drainage system and associated ice sliding speed for a catchment south of Jakobshavn Isbræ (Greenland) in 2011. The left panel shows contours of the hydraulic potential and the network of channels; the right panel shows the sliding speed and channels; and the bottom panel shows the meltwater forcing. +
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The movie shows a small river confluence in Illinois. The figure shows the bathymetry and dimensions, it is a small system (~8 m wide, 0.65m deep). It is an asymmetrical confluence with concordant bed, the velocity and momentum (rQU) ratios are ~1.0. In that case, the mixing layer development is driven by difference in directions of the streams. Other simulation conditions are: - Re~166,000 (D=0.4m U=0.44 m/s), Fr=0.24 - Maximum scour depth 2.92D
In the movie, obvious eddies develop at the mixing interface, they propagate downstream, complete mixing is not reached in the simulated stretch. +
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These two movies show flow field around two common structures in rivers.
Groynes are one of the most effective approaches to stabilize eroding banks and to sustain navigable channels at proper depth. They are utilized in river bank protection as well as restoration projects (e.g., restore fish habitat in degraded streams). This movie shows the case of accidental pollution, a series of groynes can substantially modify the dispersion of the pollutant cloud in the river reach.
Bridge Pillars that support the structure change the flow field and promote local differences in sedimentation and erosion. This movie illustrates the shear stress around a bridge pier. +
These two movies show flow field around two common structures in rivers.
Groynes are one of the most effective approaches to stabilize eroding banks and to sustain navigable channels at proper depth. They are utilized in river bank protection as well as restoration projects (e.g., restore fish habitat in degraded streams). This movie shows the case of accidental pollution, a series of groynes can substantially modify the dispersion of the pollutant cloud in the river reach.
Bridge Pillars that support the structure change the flow field and promote local differences in sedimentation and erosion. This movie illustrates the shear stress around a bridge pier. +
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This animation follows global wave power as a function of waves for the months of January and February of the year 2000. +
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This animation is based on a historical flood in the Netherlands and shows the flood in the land between the Maas and Waal Rivers. As is apparent in the line graph at the bottom of the page the majority of the water came from a dike breach on the Waal River. Land elevation is shown in brown and water depth is shown in blue. +
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This animation is set up to mimick the evolution of a single channel delta forming into a marine basin with high wave climate. The incoming river sediment load goes very rapidly up over time (this is set up so as to simulate a change in climate, i.e. precipitation in the basin goes up). The parameter settings are not thought to be realistic necessarily, we are looking at an extreme case of change. Wave climate is defined as to have an incoming wave height of 1m, period of 6 s, asymmetry of incoming wave angles 0.4 (so a little weighted to the left), and a highness factor of 0.7 (higher proportion of unstable, >45 degrees, waves).
The Ebro delta is a very intriguing delta which, during recent centuries, has been controlled by both natural and man-induced factors. Deforestation of the Ebro drainage basin, by man, resulted in a fast progradation of the deltaic system until this century. Many dams were constructed along the river Ebro resulting in a drastically reduced river sediment discharge, with erosive processes now dominant in the shaping of the Ebro delta coastal area. In reality, the formation of the Ebro delta took place over 100-1000's of years. +
This animation shows results of a Delft3D simulation to study the effects of the passage of a strong cold front on the Wax Lake delta in Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana (USA). The model domain is 25 by 30km. The movie shows cumulative erosion and deposition due to passage of a number of cold fronts in 2008.
Cold fronts pass every 4-5 days during the winter. Many of the simulations for the Wax Lake in the repository are done for hurricanes, but these particular experiments explore the effects of a cold front. They may be smaller magnitude events, but they happen many times per winter season.
It is clear that erosion and sedimentation in the Wax lake delta is in the order of centimeters per event. This November-December 2008 cold fronts cause about 5 cm of deposition at the fronts of the outermost mouthbars. There is also accumulation near bifurcations, where the flow presumably slows down.
At the same time, certain local areas experience erosion due to the cold fronts (the blue spots). +
This animation shows results of a Delft3D simulation to study the effects of the passage of a strong cold front on the Wax Lake delta in Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana (USA). The model domain is 25 by 30km. The movie shows water level change due to passage of a strong cold front in December 2008. Cold fronts pass every 5-7 days during the winter. Many of the simulations for the Wax Lake in the repository are done for hurricanes, but these particular experiments explore the effects of a cold front. They may be smaller magnitude events, but they happen many times per winter season.
It is clear that water level changes dramatically in the Wax lake delta associated with a winter storm event. On December 9th 2008 the winter storm pushed the water onshore, causing a water level of about 1.5 m, around 3 times higher than average conditions and the entire delta became submerged. +
This animation shows results of a Delft3D simulation to study the effects of the pasage of a strong cold front on the Wax Lake delta in Atchafalaya Bay, Louisiana (USA). The model domain is 25 by 30km. The movie shows salinity before, during and after the strongest cold front of 2008. Cold fronts pass every 4-5 days during the winter. Many of the simulations for the Wax Lake in the repository are done for hurricanes, but these particular experiments explore the effects of a cold front. They may be smaller magnitude events, but they happen many times per winter season.
Water in the Wax lake delta is relatively fresh, during the entire period there is continuous river discharge being fed into the delta system. The river discharge is more important during low tide and brackish water progrades into the delta during high tides under normal conditions. This is the pulsing of the system you can see in the beginning of the simulation. This December 2008 cold front brings more saline water close to the delta (the red color). It is clear that only the outermost bars of the delta front do get affected much by the higher salinity water. It is unlikely that these short events have a major effect on the wetland vegetation, whereas the simulation of hurricane Ike (also in the repository)killed much of the freshwater/brackish water tolerant species. +
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This animation shows the global temperature fluctuation through one calendar year. Temperature is measured in degrees Celsius and is visualized using a color scale where colder temperatures are represented by colder colors (blues and greens) and warmer temperatures are represented by warmer colors (yellows and reds). Temperatures were aggregated and averaged by month and geographic location. The global shift in temperature is due to the change in seasons caused by the tilt in the earth’s rotational axis. As the northern and southern hemispheres become closer to the sun (their respective summers) the monthly mean temperature increases. +
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This animation shows the river meander development on the Allier River near Chateau de Lys, France. This recreation was made from aerial photographs and maps from the years 1946, 1960, 1980, 1982, 1992, 1995 and 1997. +
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This animations integrates the state of the art knowledge about the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet since the Last Glacial Maximum. +
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This clip is an interview with Prof. Bob Anderson, University of Colorado, it was posted in the Daily Camera, the Boulder newspaper.
Prof Anderson talks about a study on the northern coastline of Alaska midway between Point Barrow and Prudhoe Bay where the coast is eroding by 15m annually because of declining sea ice, warming seawater and increased wave activity.
A warmer Arctic with a longer sea-ice free season have led to the steady retreat of 15m average and 25m maximum a year of the 4m high bluffs --
frozen blocks of silt and peat containing 50 to 80 percent ice --. These blocks then topple into the Beaufort Sea during the summer months by a combination of large waves pounding the shoreline and warm seawater melting the base of the
bluffs. +
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This clip shows a tsunami front, loaded with debris, prograding fastly over agricultural fields and the nearby city of Sendai.
It is estimated that the tsunami was about 10 m high when it hit the shoreline, and it traveled upto 10 km inland.
This tsunami was generated by a 8.9 magnitude earthquake in the Pacific Ocean on March 11th, 2011. The epicenter of the earthquake was 130km offshore of Sendai. +
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This is a 3D model of delta growth. The initial sequence shows the growth of the delta as sediment is deposited seaward. The following sequences show cross sectional views of the formed delta. The color scale represents deposited sediment grain size where blue colors are larger grain sizes and reds are smaller grain sizes. +
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This is a coupled run of the HydroTrend River flux model and the Coastline Evolution model CEM. The run is not intended to simulate realistic conditions, but it is thought to be a proxy for the Nile delta. The simulation has two river draining to the coast; one has a wave field comming straight at it, the other wave field comes in under an angle. This results in different development; somewhat similar to the Rosetta and Damietta lobes of the Nile delta in Egypt.
For the Nile delta, the first run, kept all parameters constant as discussed above while changing only parameters found in the Wave and Avulsion component. The wave height was set to 1m, period of 6s, asymmetry of 0.4, and highness of 0.7. The avulsion component was set to have two rivers with no deviation, and was restricted to -60 and 70. This appeared somewhat similar to the real Nile with the major difference the angle of the rivers. +
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This is a high definition animation of global air circulation created by the Community Climate System Model (CCSM) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). It spans one calendar year and is comprised of hourly data. Cloud cover is generally shown in white with areas of precipitation shown in orange. There are many seasonal weather phenomenon visible in different regions of the globe at various times. They include monsoon seasons as well as the paths of winter storms in the northern hemisphere.
In the winter months for the northern hemisphere the storm track can be clearly seen as clouds carrying lots of moisture come south from Alaska and hit the Pacific Northwest. At the same time, in the southern hemisphere afternoon rain storms can be seen over much of South America and southern Africa.
As the seasons shift, the northward movement of the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) can be seen, bringing with it the monsoon season to India and much of the east. At the same time the US hurricane season begins. These more local events can be seen forming in the Atlantic Ocean and getting pushed towards the East Coast of the US, occasionally making land fall and bringing rain. +
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This is a local news clip from Koat News, Alberquerque, New Mexico. It documents the damage that the small town of San Francisco sustained due to the flooding of the Rio Puerco in September 2013.
The Rio Puerco is a tributary to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. It is a dryland river and has streamflow only when there is major rain fall in its drainage area. In September 2013 an exceptionally high water occured, and the Rio Puerco overtopped its arroyo system and broke a levee.
The water ran into farm fields and damaged homes and local roads. One resident shows the water level rose over 2ft in his house. +
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This is a mission statement of LOICZ, land-ocean interactions in the coastal zone. LOICZ is an international organization working on policy making for the coastal zone worldwide. +
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This is a model coupling experiment where a simple block of uplifted sediments eroded by Child are pass off to SedFlux within the CMT environment. +
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This is a movie of sea ice pushing up the small drillling island Oooguruk on June 23rd, 2009. Oooguruk is man-made, it is located just offshore the Colville delta along the Beaufort Sea of Alaska.
The island was constructed as a base for a drill platform in 2006, it sits in ~4-5 ft of water depth. Its sides are at least 4,5m above sea level and even up to 9m.
The process is called ice encroachment; both due to 'ride-up' and 'pile-up'.
The ice blocks are over 4-5m, the gravel bags armouring the island can be seen, those are larger than 2 m. The ice pushes itself higher up against the side of the island. The ice push results likely from far-field movement. Nearshore sea ice in this region stayed well into July 2009, but movement of the ice already starts much earlier. +
