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Neighbor News

USGS September Evening Public Lecture In Menlo Park

These non-technical lectures are free and are intended for a general audience that may not be familiar with USGS science

Coral Reefs, Climate Change, and Atoll Sustainability

Will Micronesians become the U.S.’s first climate change refugees?

by Curt Storlazzi, USGS Research Geologist and Oceanographer

Find out what's happening in Menlo Park-Athertonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Sea level is rising, threatening low-lying atoll islands throughout the western Pacific Ocean
Climate change is degrading the coral reefs that atoll islands have developed upon, decreasing the reefs’ ability to reduce wave energy and thus wave-driven island flooding
Wave-driven island overwash events threaten the limited freshwater and agricultural resources on these low-lying islands
We are trying to assess the impact of climate change and sea-level rise on the infrastructure, freshwater availability, and natural and historic resources of atoll islands under a variety of scenarios to determine “tipping points” - when islands are no longer habitable

When: Thursday, September 24th, 2015, 7:00 p.m. (PDT)

Find out what's happening in Menlo Park-Athertonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Where: U.S. Geological Survey, Bldg. 3 Rambo Auditorium, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025

More info: http://online.wr.usgs.gov/calendar/

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