GoKawiil
Tech News
A new Nature study by Willemsen and colleagues examines how much coastal protection salt-marsh plants can realistically provide during extreme storm conditions. The research addresses a key uncertainty for engineers considering nature-based alternatives to seawalls and other built structures, by quantifying where vegetation's wave- and wind-buffering abilities break down.
Scientists placed a section of salt marsh into a large wave-generating facility to study how the ecosystem responds to wave action. The experiment aimed to measure how marsh vegetation and sediment withstand and dissipate wave energy under controlled conditions.
Oceanographers tell the Guardian that a massive Kelvin wave of unusually warm Pacific water, already raising sea levels off Ecuador, Colombia and Panama by more than a foot, is moving toward California. Scientists say it could push coastal sea levels there up by as much as a foot and keep them elevated for months as part of a strong El Niño pattern.
Coastal Assembly, a startup founded by MIT researchers, installed an artificial reef off a Marriott resort island in the Maldives two years ago to combat beach erosion. The project offered an alternative to sand dredging, a common erosion fix that provides only temporary relief and can damage marine ecosystems. The reef is designed to work with natural coastal processes to help rebuild the shoreline over time.
Researchers report that massive mountain ranges formed by continental collisions once existed in what is now Antarctica. As these supermountains eroded over millions of years, they released nutrient-rich sediment that scientists say coincided with periods of rapid biological expansion on Earth.
Recent storm-driven waves fueled by Hurricane Marie eroded parts of the Southern California coastline near the decommissioned San Onofre nuclear plant, reigniting concerns about the safety of nearby spent fuel storage. The 3.6 million pounds of radioactive waste sit in concrete canisters about 100 feet from a seawall that protects the site, and Southern California Edison has pledged to relocate the waste to higher ground if erosion modeling warrants it. Experts say near-term risk is low, but note the waste will remain on-site indefinitely as no permanent disposal solution exists.