San Francisco Bight Coastal Processes Study

The USGS is conducting a study that documents and analyzes the processes that control the sand transport and sedimentation patterns of Ocean Beach, a National Park site within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This area encompasses a complicated coastal setting that is impacted by the tidal influence of San Francisco Bay, as well as the southwest and northwest Pacific swell. High-energy conditions at this site have restricted comprehensive field surveys in the past, but recent innovations in field techniques now make it possible to perform detailed analysis of the physical processes operating on high energy coastlines, such as Ocean Beach.

This study is a task under the USGS PCMSC project titled, Coastal Evolution: Process-based Multi-scale Modeling.

See our 2006 EOS Transactions publication titled, "Giant sand waves at the mouth of San Francisco Bay."

Read detailed information about this study.