Graham Giese

• Center for Coastal Studies

• “Black Mayonnaise”, a common term for black, fine sediment, has an informal definition attached to it: “A dispersion of fine-grained, highly contaminated particles that is devoid of all normal aquatic life, and is composed of human waste floatables, oily slicks, chips of asbestos, arsenic, copper, lead, and mercury and industrial garbage” (United...

The breaching of Nauset Beach during a severe northeasterly storm on January 2, 1987, ended a long period of growth of the barrier beach and initiated a new phase in the cyclic evolution of the Pleasant Bay/Chatham Harbor system. The pre-1987 barrier beach growth period is referred to as the “inlet migration” phase of the cycle in reference to the...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Center for Coastal Studies has undertaken, for the Town of Eastham, an analysis of the potential impacts on coastal processes and barrier geomorphology that could be expected to result from the project as described within the 'Nauset Estuary Dredging Feasibility Assessment' prepared by the Woods Hole Group for the Town of Orle...

The continuous change of the channels, inlets and extent of the barrier beach separating the Pleasant Bay/Chatham Harbor estuarine system from the greater Atlantic Ocean in turn produce changes in tidal and wave patterns within the estuary. The breaching of Nauset Beach during a severe northeasterly storm on January 2, 1987, ended a long period of...

The surficial geologic map of the Wellfleet 7.5-minute Quadrangle incorporates a previously available onshore surficial geologic map (Stone and DiGiacomo-Cohen, 2009) and new data collected offshore out to approximately 20 m below mean sea level (MSL). The offshore surficial data include: sidescan sonar imagery, swath bathymetry and surface grab sa...

Pleasant Bay is a 9,000-acre estuary located in the Towns of Orleans, Chatham, Harwich and Brewster, Massachusetts. Due to its unique and extensive environmental values, the Bay and its surrounding shoreline and connected wetlands were designated by the Commonwealth as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). The four towns that share the...

The Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) developed a quantitative, century-scale sediment budget for the Towns of Sandwich and Barnstable along 16.5 miles of shoreline from the Cape Cod Canal to Nobscusset Point in Dennis. Sediment budgets document the direction and volume of sediment movement as well as the sources and sinks of sediment in the nearsho...

The shape sorting of pebbles in the swash zone was studied in an effort to determine the effect of the amount of foreshore infiltration per wave on the swash zone energy balance. Measurements were made of pebbles collected from the swash limit and from the step of selected sandy beaches. The pebbles were sampled on occasions when, and at locations...