Identifying coastal areas vulnerable to coastal geohazards
Assessing flood risks of communities affected by extreme sea-level rise due to coastal geohazards is dependent on establishing a history of past geohazard occurrences. Modern events can serve as an analog to better understand the long-term risks of tropical cyclones.
Current work: How are east coast salt marshes responding to sea-level rise? Recently funded work will observe a variety of environmental factors in salt marshes along Delaware Bay.
Developing proxies for sea-level reconstructions
The salinity preferences of modern diatom assemblages serve as an analog from which fossil diatom assemblages can be used to reconstruct RSL change. My research focuses on developing diatoms as a proxy for quantifying RSL rise caused by prehistoric earthquakes along the Cascadia subduction zone. I conducted the largest intertidal modern diatom distribution study of Washington state by collecting, describing, and quantifying the distribution of benthic diatoms and their environmental variables across the intertidal in Willapa Bay, Washington (Hong et al., 2021).
Current work: includes modern observations of salt marsh dynamics from southern Vancouver Island (BC, Canada) to southern Washington state, USA.
Assessing coastal geohazard risk
Coastal risk assessments using observational records and instrumental measurements are insufficient in identifying the potential magnitude and recurrence of earthquakes.
Current work: Repeated high-intensity tropical cyclones in the Atlantic highlight the importance of using modern observations to improve our understanding of past coastal geohazards. The recently awarded NSF RAPID grant will study the overwash sediments of Hurricane Ian (Category 4 intensity) in southwest Florida. Results of the study will help us to assess future flooding risk.
