CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Barrie, V.
Date : 2001.
Title : Coastal hazards of Georgia Basin, British Columbia.
Publication : St. John's 2001. Geological Association of Canada - Mineralogical Association of Canada 2001 Joint Annual Meeting / l'Association géologique du Canada - l'Association minéralogique du Canada réunion annuelle conjointe. Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland, May 27-30 2001.
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Abstract
The Georgia Basin is a spectacular landscape surrounding a bountiful inland sea which has three areas: Puget Sound and Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca. The Basin is surrounded by the largest coastal population and development growth in Canada and lies within the most seismically active zone in Canada. Of particular concern is the Fraser River Delta located in the southern Strait of Georgia. It is the site of a significant population (1998 population 1.9 million), ferry terminals, port facilities ($ 1.7 billion), airport ($ 1.1 billion), tourism and fisheries industry ($ 7 billion), and critical electrical transmission and communication cable corridor to Vancouver Island. Two causeways south of the main channel of the Fraser River and one to the north cross the intertidal zone act as barriers to the dominant northward sediment transport causing estuarine and localized seabed erosion. An eroded distributary channel failure complex, off the southern causeways, has been exposed on the delta foreslope by flood tidal flows that scour the seabed and form northward migrating subaqueous dunes further increasing the delta slope. This, combined with slow sea level rise and seismicity, intensifies the risk of further erosion and instability of the delta, particularly along the subaqueous delta front and the intertidal estuaries. Mapleguard Spit, the site of a housing development along eastern Vancouver Island, has experienced two submarine failures in the last three years, in part due to coastal erosion that has been enhanced by coastal structures disrupting longshore drift. Earthquakes did not trigger these failures. Within the Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca, recent geophysical surveys have delineated active faults; yet, the response of the basin to a major earthquake remains largely unknown. The submarine and coastal portions of this Basin are thus subject to both large development pressures and natural geologic hazards. To help safeguard the population, protect existing and future development, and effectively manage the resources and future utilization of the Basin, the Geological Survey of Canada has initiated a multi-year program the Georgia Basin Geohazards Initiative. Initial results of this program are presented here.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology