Geology topics

Matthew Daniels

Publications and source records attributed to Matthew Daniels.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2023

National preparedness strategy & action plan for potentially hazardous near-Earth objects and planetary defense

Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun, but have orbits that can bring them into Earth’s neighborhood—within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. Planetary defense is “applied planetary science” to address the NEO impact risks on Earth. This National Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan for Near-Earth Objects and Planetary Defense (2023 Planetary Defense Strategy) updates the United States’ first comprehensive Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan, released in 2018. The 2023 Planetary Defense Strategy builds on existing efforts by Federal Departments and Agencies to address the hazard of near-Earth object impacts, includes evaluation of where progress has been made since 2018, and focuses future work on planetary defense across the U.S. government. The 2023 Planetary Defense Strategy maintains and updates the core five goals of the 2018 Strategy and Action Plan, while adding a sixth goal to improve governance and interagency coordination on planetary defense issues across Federal Departments and Agencies for the decade ahead. The 2023 Planetary Defense Strategy focuses on six goals: • Goal 1: Enhance NEO detection, tracking, and characterization capabilities. • Goal 2: Improve NEO modeling, prediction, and information integration. • Goal 3: Develop technologies for NEO deflection and disruption missions. • Goal 4: Increase international cooperation on NEO preparation. • Goal 5: Strengthen and routinely exercise NEO impact emergency procedures and action protocols. • Goal 6: Improve U.S. governance of planetary defense through new interagency collaboration.

Report↗

USGS2023

An assessment of Kootenai River channel migration and riparian habitat encroachment

The lower reach of the Kootenai River in northern Idaho is dominated by large and actively migrating meander bends. Flow conditions, altered by both upstream flow reductions and by downstream backwater effects, are believed to be important geomorphological drivers throughout the reach. For example, Trout Creek Peninsula, located in an area of active meander migration, is undergoing continued bank erosion that has the potential to capture South Fork Trout Creek and result in an alteration of the Kootenai River active channel. Although chute-cutoffs are natural and common in meandering channels and can increase habitat diversity, avulsion events on regulated rivers with heavily used floodplains can also lead to loss of land and habitat. A chute-cutoff at Trout Creek Peninsula would create an island and potentially result in large volumes of erosion and deposition on private and tribal land. This could result in decreased riparian habitat and private land access along Trout Creek. To address landowner risk we refine estimates of bank erosion rates and the potential timeline for the capture of Trout Creek to inform stakeholder decisions about monitoring or managing bank erosion processes. Historical imagery, airborne and boat-mounted LiDAR, and repeat bathymetric surveys suggest that localized areas of high short-term bank erosion rates have increased to about 15 ft/yr near South Fork Trout Creek and the possibility of a chute cutoff event by 2043. Changes in bank erosion rates over time were compared to flow records to better understand how the complex flow regulation in this reach might be impacting geomorphic processes.

Idaho↗