Pacific Coastal & Marine Science Center
Jon WarrickPCMSC Links
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Jonathan A. WarrickResearch Geologist
Research and publicationsDispersal of river materials in the coastal oceanRivers are important sources of fresh water, sediment, nutrients and pollutants to the ocean. One of my primary research goals is to better understand the initial transport of these river-derived materials in buoyant river plumes in the coastal ocean. Warrick, J.A., and P.L. Barnard, 2012. The offshore export of sand during exceptional discharge from California rivers. Geology, vol. 40, no. 9, pp. 787-790. Warrick, J.A. and A.W. Stevens, 2011. A buoyant plume adjacent to a headland - Observations of the Elwha River plume, Continental Shelf Research, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 85-97. Warrick, J.A. and K.L. Farnsworth, 2009. Chapter 2.3 – Dispersal of river sediment in the Southern California Bight. In: Lee, H and Normark, B (Eds). Earth Science in the Urban Ocean: The Southern California Continental Borderland. Geological Society of America, Special Paper Number 454, pp. 53-68, Warrick, J.A., P.M. DiGiacomo, S.B. Weisberg, N.P. Nezlin, M. Mengel, B.H. Jones, J.C. Ohlmann, L. Washburn, E.J. Terrill and K.L. Farnsworth, 2007. River plume patterns and dynamics within the Southern California Bight. Continental Shelf Research, vol. 27, pp. 2427-2448, Warrick, J.A., L. Washburn, M.A. Brzezinski, D.A. Siegel, 2005. Nutrient contributions to the Santa Barbara Channel, California, from the ephemeral Santa Clara River. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, vol. 62, pp. 559-574. Warrick, J.A., L.A.K. Mertes, L. Washburn, D.A. Siegel, 2004. A conceptual model for river water and sediment dispersal in the Santa Barbara Channel, California. Continental Shelf Research, vol. 24, no. 17, pp. 2029-2043. Warrick, J.A., D.A. Fong, 2004. Dispersal scaling from the world's rivers. Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 34, pp. L04301. {2004 AGU Journal Highlight}. Warrick, J.A., L.A.K. Mertes, D.A. Siegel, L. Washburn, 2004. Dispersal forcing of a southern California river plume, based on field and remote sensing observations. Geo-Marine Letters, vol. 24, pp. 46-52. Mertes, L.A.K. and J.A. Warrick, 2001. Measuring flood output from 110 coastal watersheds in California with field measurements and SeaWiFS. Geology, vol. 29, no. 7, pp. 659-662. Coastal geomorphologyThe shapes and features of coastal landforms change regularly as a result of the forces enacted by the flow of water, wind and sediment. I actively research these geomorphic processes and how they shape the land and the seafloor with a focus on river mouth deltas and coastal floodplains. Warrick, J.A., and P.L. Barnard, 2012, The offshore export of sand during exceptional discharge from California rivers. Geology, vol. 40, no. 9, pp. 787-790. Miller, I.M., and J.A. Warrick, 2012, Measuring sediment transport and bed disturbance with tracers on a mixed beach: Marine Geology, vol. 299-302, pp.1-17. Barnard, P.L. and J.A. Warrick, 2010. Dramatic beach and nearshore morphological changes at a high-energy, wave-dominated river mouth, Marine Geology, vol. 271, pp. 131-148. Warrick, J.A., D.A. George, G. Gelfenbaum, G. Kaminsky, and M. Beirne, 2009. Beach morphology and change along the mixed grain-size delta of the Elwha River, Washington. Geomorphology, vol. 111, pp. 136-148. Coastal watershedsThe small, steep watersheds of the U.S. West Coast have high natural rates of sediment discharge and numerous human-influenced impacts, including land use change, damming of rivers, wildfires and rapid population growth. My research is conducted in watersheds draining to the coastal and with a focus on the rates and trends in sediment discharge. Warrick, J.A., J.A. Hatten, G.B. Pasternack, A.B. Gray, M.A. Goni, R.A. Wheatcroft, 2012, The effects of wildfire on the sediment yield of a coastal California watershed, Geological Society of America, Bulletin, vol. 124, no. 7/8, pp. 1130-1146. Warrick, J.A. and L.A.K. Mertes, 2009. Sediment production from the tectonically active semiarid Western Transverse Ranges of California. Geological Society of America, Bulletin, vol. 121, no. 7/8, pp. 1054-1070. Hunsinger, G.B., S. Mitra, J.A. Warrick, and C.R. Alexander, 2008. Oceanic loading of wildfire-derived organic compounds from a small mountainous river. Journal of Geophysical Research – Biogeosciences. vol. 113, pp. G02007. Farnsworth, K.L. and J.A. Warrick, 2008. Sources, Dispersal and Fate of Fine-Grained Sediment for Coastal California. U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report: SIR 2007-5254. Warrick, J.A. and D.M. Rubin, 2007. Suspended-sediment rating-curve response to urbanization and wildfire, Santa Ana River, California. Journal of Geophysical Research – Earth Surface, vol. 112, pp. F02018. Hyperpycnal river plumesRiver waters are typically less dense than seawater, so the mixing of these waters at river mouths typically results in positively buoyant ("floating") river plumes. However, under circumstances of heavy sediment loading, river waters can have greater densities than seawater, which results in negatively buoyant ("plunging" or "hyperpycnal") gravity currents along the seafloor. These hyperpycnal plumes are important sediment dispersal mechanisms for many small rivers throughout the world. Warrick, J.A., and P.L. Barnard, 2012. The offshore export of sand during exceptional discharge from California rivers. Geology, vol. 40, no. 9, pp. 787-790. Warrick, J.A., J. Xu, M. Noble, and H.J. Lee, 2008. Rapid formation of hyperpycnal sediment gravity currents offshore of a semi-arid California river. Continental Shelf Research, vol. 28, pp. 991-1009, doi:10.1016/j.csr.2007.11.002 Warrick, J.A., and J.D. Milliman, 2003. Hyperpycnal sediment discharge from semi-arid southern California rivers - implications for coastal sediment budgets. Geology, vol. 31, no. 9, pp. 781-784. Elwha River dam removalThe largest planned dam removal project in world history will occur on the Elwha River of Washington during 2011-2013. This project is both an important opportunity to measure and understand large-scale ecosystem restoration and one of the largest planned sediment releases into a river and coastal system in history. For more information about this project, see http://www.usgs.gov/elwha/ Warrick J.A., J.J. Duda, C.S. Magirl, and C.A. Curran, 2012. River turbidity and sediment loads during dam removal. Eos, vol. 93, no. 43, pp. 425-426. Duda, J.J., J.A. Warrick, and C.S. Magirl, 2011. Elwha River dam removal--Rebirth of a river: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2011-3097, 4 p. http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2011/3097/ Duda, J.J., J.A. Warrick, and C.S. Magirl (eds), 2011. Coastal habitats of the Elwha River, Washington— Biological and physical patterns and processes prior to dam removal: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2011–5120, 264 p. http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2011/5120/ Warrick, J.A. and A.W. Stevens, 2011. A buoyant plume adjacent to a headland - Observations of the Elwha River plume, Continental Shelf Research, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 85-97, doi:10.1016/j.csr.2010.11.007 Miller, I.M., J.A. Warrick, and C. Morgan, 2011. Observations of coarse sediment movements on the mixed beach of the Elwha Delta, Washington State. Marine Geology, vol. 282, no. 3-4, pp. 201-214. Warrick, J.A., D.A. George, G. Gelfenbaum, G. Kaminsky, and M. Beirne. 2009. Beach morphology and change along the mixed grain-size delta of the Elwha River, Washington. Geomorphology, v. 111, p. 136-148. Draut, A.E., J.B. Logan, R.E. McCoy, M. McHenry, and J.A. Warrick. 2008. Channel Evolution on the Lower Elwha River, Washington, 1939–2006. USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5127. 26 p. Warrick, J.A., G.R. Cochrane, Y. Sagy, G. Gelfenbaum, 2008. Nearshore substrate and morphology offshore of the Elwha River. Northwest Science, vol. 82, pp. 153-163. Geologic research methodsMethods of measurement and analysis in the geologic sciences are continually refined with new approaches and new technology. I enjoy participating in these advancements by exploring and contributing to novel or new methods. Buscombe D., D.M. Rubin, and J.A. Warrick, 2010. Universal Measure of Mean Grain Size from Images of Non-Cohesive Sediment, Journal of Geophysical Research- Earth Surface, vol. 115, pp. F02015. Warrick, J.A., D.M. Rubin, P. Ruggiero, J. Harney, A.E. Draut, and D. Buscombe, 2009. Cobble Cam: Grain-size measurements of sand to boulder from digital photographs and autocorrelation analyses. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, vol. 34, no. 13, pp. 1811-1821. Warrick, J.A., L.A.K. Mertes, D.A. Siegel, and C. MacKenzie, 2004. Estimating suspended sediment concentrations in turbid coastal waters of the Santa Barbara Channel with SeaWiFS. International Journal of Remote Sensing - Remote Sensing Letters, vol. 25, no. 10, pp. 1995-2002. Curriculum VitaeAvailable as PDF document (102 K). Files for downloadThe following files can be used to conduct 'Cobble Cam' grain size analyses on digital photographs as described in Warrick et al. (2009). Please see the read_me.rtf file for more information. Download all files listed below, as a .zip (compressed, 16K): warrick_cobblecam.zip
Web links
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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/staff/jwarrick/
Page Contact Information: Laura Zink Torresan
Page Last Modified: 19 December 2012 (lzt)
