King Tide Wrap-Up Party

King Tide swamps railroad tracks in Coos Bay.\Photo by Robert More.

We’re celebrating the conclusion of the 2017-2018 King Tide Project with a party on Monday, Feb. 5, beginning at 6 p.m. at the 7 Devils Brewing Co. in Coos Bay.  We’ll furnish the finger food—drinks and meals available no host from the brewery. We have wonderful raffle items!

We’ll be mingling, viewing the photos taken as part of this year’s project, and educating ourselves about sea level rise and erosion with a short, entertaining talk.  Everyone is welcome to attend, whether or not they participated in the project—this is a chance to learn about king tides and sea level rise, and perhaps plan on getting involved next fall.

We will also have a special speaker, Jonathan Allan of the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries.  His theme will be:  Between a Rock and the Ocean: Implications of Future Sea Levels on Pacific Northwest Beaches and Estuaries. Dr. Allan is a coastal geomorphologist with the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI). He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in New Zealand specializing in coastal processes and hazards. In July 1999, Allan moved to Corvallis Oregon to take up a post-doctoral position at Oregon State University, eventually joining DOGAMI in 2001.During the past 15 years, he has undertaken studies that include coastal erosion hazard mapping, analyses of North Pacific wave climate changes and the effect of extreme storms on Pacific Northwest (PNW) beaches, assessments of storm surges and seasonal to interannual variations in sea level changes on the PNW coast, and studies of gravel beaches as a form of soft coastal engineering. In 2015, Allan took over the Tsunami program from George Priest following his retirement from DOGAMI. Allan continues to emphasize the importance and need to prepare for the next CSZ earthquake and accompanying tsunami.

Dr. Allan will briefly cover Oregon coastal geomorphology, introduce the concept of beach sediment budgets and cycles of beach change, and then provide an overview of recent historical changes that have occurred on the Oregon coast. The second half of the talk will focus on global to regional to local changes in sea level, current forecasts of future sea levels, and what this might mean for Oregon’s beaches and estuaries.

For more information about the event, contact Fawn Custer, CoastWatch volunteer coordinator, at (541) 270-0027, fawn@oregonshores.org.