Exceptionally well-preserved asteroid specimens from the Cenomanian and Turonian coastal exposures in Seine-Maritime (north-west France) are described. These include a new genus, Crielaster (type species: C. annae sp. nov.), provisionally assigned to the family Chaetasteridae, a new species of the astropectinid genus Coulonia (C. fournoui sp. nov.), and a new species of stauranderasterid (Stauranderaster pustulosus sp. nov.). A superbly preserved specimen of Oreaster coronatus Forbes, 1848, showing the construction of the abactinal surface, supports subdivision of the genus Stauranderaster. Stauranderaster coronatus is designated as the type species of Coronataster gen. nov., and Squamataster gen. nov. is erected with Oreaster squamatus Forbes, 1848 as its type species.

Abstract Tropical cyclones (TCs) have historically had far-reaching impacts on livelihoods and vulnerable coastal communities in Bangladesh. Characterizing and understanding the complex and multifaceted nature of TCs is essential for identifying gaps and opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of disaster management practices. This study advances our understanding of TC dynamics in Bangladesh by conducting an integrated analysis of disaster statistics, preparedness measures, and meteorological variables for all landfalling TCs from 1979 to 2022. Our findings indicate that while the frequency of TCs, their meteorological characteristics (e.g., intensity), and related human health and economic impact trends at national scale have remained relatively constant, the spatial impact footprint induced by a single TC has increased. This rise can be attributed to increased coastal exposures including population and assets and improved reporting of smaller-scale disasters at the sub-national level. During 2000–2013, substantial funding shortfalls for addressing disaster risk were noted, with the country’s disaster management budget heavily dependent on humanitarian and foreign aid. Although there have been fewer fatalities in recent years due to improvements in soft measures, challenges remain, including deficiencies in implementing state-of-the-art impact-based early warning systems and limited disaster management funding, especially during years with major TC disaster events. These findings underscore the complex interplay between meteorological hazards, societal exposure, and vulnerabilities, highlighting the challenges of managing disaster risk in Bangladesh.

The first discovery of any dinosaur remains in a US National Park Service unit in Alaska occurred in 2001 in Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve. The record consisted of the track of a pes impression, or track made by the foot of a hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur) and an associated manus impression, or track made by a hand. Subsequent work has shown the original track discovery was not unique, and that the coastal exposures of the Cretaceous Chignik Formation in Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve contain a remarkable number of tracks. Further, because of the limited faulting, the several hundred meters of section found along this coastal set of exposures provide a remarkably complete look at an ancient high-latitude dinosaurian ecosystem and are of outstanding universal value.

For the first time, data on the composition of cladoceran communities in lake bottom sediments from Bol’shoy Lyakhovsky Island and Oyogos Yar on the coast of the Dmitry Laptev Strait during the last major interglacial period (MIS 5e, 124-119 thousand years ago) have been obtained. 13 Cladocera taxa were identified in the composition of the taphocenoses. The composition of the Cladocera taphocenoses of Oyogos Yar indicates the presence of a well-developed littoral zone in the paleolakes, as most of the cladoceran remains belong to littoral-phytophilic taxa closely associated with macrophytes. In the Cladocera communities of Oyogos Yar, both cold-water representatives and more southern thermophilic taxa, such as Leydigia leydigi, were found. The findings of Cladocera remains from the MIS 5e period on the coast of the Laptev Sea, significantly north of their current ranges, allow for the reconstruction of warmer climatic conditions than those of today. The data obtained on Cladocera are well consistent with the results of chironomid analysis.

Identifying opportunities for harmonized microplastics and mesoplastics monitoring for Caribbean Small Island Developing States using a spatiotemporal assessment of beaches in South Eleuthera, The Bahamas

Integrating LiDAR to unravel the volcanic architecture and eruptive history of the peralkaline Tūhua (Mayor Island) volcano, New Zealand

New collecting of ammonites and inoceramid bivalves from Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary sections exposed al Sopelana and Zumaya, Spain, and Hendaye and Bidart (Biarritz), France, has led to better understanding of molluscan biostratigraphy in each of these coastal exposures. Ali of these sections can be lithologically correlated. At all of the sections, ammonites have now been found within the last meter of the Cretaceous. Also, in all of the sections, inoceramid bivalves disappear near the base A. mayaronensis planktonic foram zone, the only exception being the small, enigmatic bivalve genus Tenuipteria, which ranges up to the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary.

Pedorelicts occur sporadically in coastal exposures of Middle to Late Triassic continental sediments, at Portishead, SW England. The clasts include aeolian and bedrock constituents, calcrete textures, vesicles and other pedogenic features reflecting a hot semi-arid palaeoenvironment. Interpreted as being derived from an upland soil, they are classified in palaeosol terms as Calcic Protosol. In the most significant exposure, cryptic tubular trace fossils in branching networks occur within these pedorelict clasts in a localised fluvial deposit. This extremely rare palaeoecological archive offers a glimpse into continental upland life in a Pangaean desert landscape. It is documented for its own merit, to support continuing studies of its palaeobiology and to prompt investigation for comparable deposits.The pedorelicts occur within the Mercia Mudstone Marginal Facies (MMMF), close to its basal unconformity with underlying Paleozoic strata, at the margin of the Somerset Basin. The soil from which they are derived is interpreted to have developed in an upland regolith over Tournaisian bedrock of interbedded limestone and siltstone. These weathered and, with aeolian dust containing calcite and iron minerals and siliciclastic sand, formed a structured soil. This was aided by intermittent light and moderate rainfall that promoted mainly vadose pedogenic calcretization with displacive calcite crystallisation and siliciclastic grain breakage. In places, the soil was vesicular, as an ‘Av’ horizon, and in others, it was bioturbated with the development of calcite-lined tubules and unlined tunnels. At intervals of perhaps 104 to 105 years, catastrophic deluges eroded the regolith and transported clasts downslope towards the basin to form onlapping coarse clastic beds typical of the MMMF. The soil structure disintegrated but fragments that became pedorelicts were segregated in a fault-controlled palaeo-valley, possibly partly as a debris-flow, to be deposited as localised conglomeratic lenses with fluvial sand. After burial by further sedimentation, this deposit underwent diagenetic calcite cementation and baryte mineralisation before its present exposure by coastal erosion.

The Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay Formation (KCF) underlies much of the Vale of Pickering where it is almost wholly concealed by the Cretaceous Speeton Clay Formation and Quaternary deposits. There are few KCF inland or coastal exposures in Yorkshire with the result that the succession was stratigraphically poorly known until the 1970s oil crisis when the British Geological Survey drilled continuously cored boreholes at Marton and Reighton to examine the formation as a possible source of hydrocarbons. These were supplemented in 1987 by continuously cored boreholes drilled at Marton, Reighton, Ebberston and Flixborough by the Institut Français du Pétrole for hydrocarbons research. Taken together, the boreholes have enabled the lithological, palaeontological, geochemical and geophysical characters of the full thickness of the formation to be examined. Comparison of the KCF successions proved in Yorkshire with those in the adjacent North Sea, the East Midlands and the Dorset coast type area, shows marked variations in thickness related to penecontemporaneous faulting. However, there are only minor variations in the lithologies and faunas at any particular stratigraphical level. This appears to be due to a combination of Milankovitch-driven climatic fluctuations and pulsed variations in sea level which combined to produce similar depositional conditions throughout the English KCF at any one time. The chronostratigraphical classification of the KCF developed in southern England has therefore been shown to be applicable to the Yorkshire outcrop and the southern North Sea. The changes in sea level may be eustatic rather than regional events, but there is insufficient palaeontological evidence to enable them to be correlated with confidence with those of the standard Jurassic sea-level curve.

The stratigraphy of the upper Campanian Chalk of the southern English coast (Isle of Wight, Dorset), United Kingdom

Engineering geological characteristics of the rapidly growing Auckland urban area are of increasing interest due to ongoing and planned tunnels and excavations. Auckland is mainly underlain by Miocene-age East Coast Bays Formation (ECBF), a highly heterogeneous flysch deposit, and is also affected by lava flows from the Late Quaternary Auckland Volcanic Field (AVF). Therefore, excavations in the region can encounter highly variable rock mass. Here, the geological strength index (GSI) and rock mass rating (RMR) were applied to outcrop in coastal cliff exposures located on Auckland’s North Shore, to evaluate the engineering geological properties of the ECBF. Samples were also extracted for laboratory analysis of elastic wave velocities, intact strength parameters and thin section analysis of microtexture. Specific issues identified include lenses of the heavily zeolitized Parnell Volcaniclastic Conglomerate, and marked strength contrasts within the weaker ECBF siltstone and sandstone. The ECBF sandstone, where uncemented, is much weaker and is highly permeable, while the presence of smectite clay may be problematic for tunnelling if it disaggregates, forming a ‘sticky spoil’. The presence of larger-scale defects has been problematic for tunnelling, including the presence of low shear strength clay seams along ECBF bedding planes, and bedding planes intersecting tunnel crowns.

Palynology is used to provide new age controls for the coastal exposures yielding Early Cretaceous vertebrate faunas in the Otway and Gippsland basins, southeast Australia. This work shows all vertebrate-bearing deposits in the Otway Basin are Albian in age. On the eastern margin of Cape Otway, vertebrate-bearing deposits are attributed to the early Albian Crybelosporites striatus Zone, except for one in the younger Coptospora paradoxa Zone. To the west of Cape Otway, the sampled deposits range from the oldest zone in the Albian, the C. striatus Zone, to the C. paradoxa and Phimopollenites pannosus zones, providing a complete section of the Albian stage. In the Gippsland Basin, the structural setting of vertebrate deposits is more complicated and large portions of the coastal exposures consist of repeated sections controlled by small-scale faults. Sites in this region lie below or above the Barremian/Aptian boundary. However, owing to the paucity of age indicator species, some sampled deposits remain undated. In this basin, the ranges of certain key palynomorph species (e.g., Pilosisporites notensis and Pilosisporites parvispinosus) differed from those outlined in some previously published biostratigraphic schemes. The discovery of the angiosperm pollen Clavatipollenites hughesii in the lowermost Aptian deposits of the Gippsland Basin is consistent with its first occurrence elsewhere in Australia and shows it is a reliable indicator for the Aptian stage. This study shows that there is currently a collection bias towards vertebrate assemblages that are latest Barremian and early Albian in age.Barbara E. Wagstaff [wagstaff@unimelb.edu.au], The School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia; Stephen J. Gallagher [sjgall@unimelb.edu.au], The School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia; W. Michael Hall [mike.hall@monash.edu], School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia; Vera A. Korasidis [korasidisv@si.edu], Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Paleobiology, NHB121, 10th and Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC20013-7012, USA; Thomas H. Rich [trich@museum.vic.gov.au], Melbourne Museum, 11 Nicholson Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia; Doris E. Seegets-Villiers [doris.seegets-villiers@monash.edu], School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia; Patricia A. Vickers-Rich [pat.rich@monash.edu], School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia and Swinburne University of Technology, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia.

Baranskaya, A.V.; Novikova, A.V.; Shabanova, N.; Romanenko, F., and Ogorodov, S., 2020. Late Quaternary and modern evolution of permafrost coasts at Beliy Island, Kara Sea. In: Malvarez, G. and Navas, F. (eds.), Global Coastal Issues of 2020. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 95, pp. 356–361. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.The low coasts of Beliy Island, Kara Sea, composed of perennially frozen sands and silts with peat are extremely vulnerable to all changes in sea level and climate conditions in the Arctic. The complex Holocene history of the island is reflected in sediments outcropping in its coastal bluffs. Modern erosion leads to destruction of these bluffs, continuing to change the topography of the island.To reconstruct Late Quaternary history, coastal exposures were investigated. They generally consist of three units: the lower clays and sands with plant debris, parallel and rippled lamination formed in shallow marine conditions in MIS 3. The middle sandy unit with allochtonuous peat lenses was deposited in the mid-Holocene (5 to 8 ka BP) in coastal conditions. The upper peats, sandy loams and silts accumulated in continental conditions after 5 ka.To estimate modern coastal erosion rates, multitemporal satellite imagery (1969-2016) was used. The western coast retreated at higher average rates than the eastern coast (1.9±0.2 m/y and 1.2±0.2 m/y, respectively). Extreme rates during 47 years were higher from the eastern side (4.6 m/y compared to 3.1 m/y in the west). Both mean and extreme erosion rates are higher than the known erosion intensity of the Kara Sea coastal dynamics monitoring sites, evidencing considerable vulnerability of the low coasts to erosion in the changing climate. Evolution of the hydrometeorological parameters affecting coastal erosion in the XX-XXI century was estimated. High average retreat rates must have happened in the 2000s-2010s as a result of both temperature and wave energy increase providing unprecedent environmental forcing of coastal dynamics.

The Santa Cruz Formation (SCF) records high latitude terrestrial paleoecosystems in the Southern Hemisphere during Burdigalian– early Langhian times (Early–Middle Miocene). Mammalian fossils from Río Santa Cruz (RSC) localities were first collected in the late 19th century, forming the basis for the Santacrucian South American Land Mammal Age. New collections permitt an update of the SCF mammalian species along the RSC. The total taxonomic richness is 95 mammalian species. Many species considered by Ameghino as exclusive for the older Notohippidian stage at similar latitude in the west, are not in fact so. The taxonomic richness in three localities along the RSC is substantially different: 47 species from Barrancas Blancas (BB), 60 from Segundas Barrancas Blancas (SBB) and nine from Yaten Huageno. The faunal composition between BB and SBB is also different: they share 31 species, of which six are present only at BB and 20 only at SBB. More than 85 % of all RSC species are also found at Atlantic coastal exposures of the SCF. In spite of BB (~17.04–16.49 Ma) being closer in age to coastal exposures, and SBB fossils (~16.46–15.63 Ma) being younger than the coastal localities (~17.80–16.30 Ma), the greatest similarity is between SBB and the coast. Faunal differences among the localities may be accounted for local variation in climatic and environmental factors. Previously proposed Santacrucian biozones should be set aside. The exposures of the SCF along the RSC should be considered as the type area of this unit and the Santacrucian fauna.

Quantifying a critical marl thickness for vertical fracture extension using field data and numerical experiments

Spatial trends and drivers of marine debris accumulation on shorelines in South Eleuthera, The Bahamas using citizen science

Twenty-nine mudstone samples from coastal exposures of the upper Campanian Northumberland Formation on Hornby Island, British Columbia, Canada, have yielded diverse assemblages of exceptionally well-preserved dinoflagellate cysts belonging to the family Areoligeraceae. In total, at least 11 species belonging to eight genera occur throughout the studied section. Emendations are proposed for the genera Canningia, Canninginopsis, Circulodinium, Cyclonephelium and Senoniasphaera. The new species Canningia diastatikos sp. nov. is proposed. The assemblages include one species complex, which we refer to as the ‘Areoligera volata complex’, that exhibits morphological intergradation between forms typical of Areoligera coronata and Areoligera volata. It is postulated that morphological intergradation may reflect ecophenotypic variability which may present utility for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions.

Evidence for dyke-parallel shear during syn-intrusion fracturing

Permafrost degradation of coastal and marine sediments of the Arctic Seas can result in large amounts of methane emitted to the atmosphere. The quantitative assessment of such emissions requires data on variability of methane content in various types of permafrost strata. To evaluate the methane concentrations in sediments and ground ice of the Kara Sea coast, samples were collected at a series of coastal exposures. Methane concentrations were determined for more than 400 samples taken from frozen sediments, ground ice and active layer. In frozen sediments, methane concentrations were lowest in sands and highest in marine clays. In ground ice, the highest concentrations above 500 ppmV and higher were found in massive tabular ground ice, with much lower methane concentrations in ground ice wedges. The mean isotopic composition of methane is −68.6‰ in permafrost and −63.6‰ in the active layer indicative of microbial genesis. The isotopic compositions of the active layer is enriched relative to permafrost due to microbial oxidation and become more depleted with depth. Ice-rich sediments of Kara Sea coasts, especially those with massive tabular ground ice, hold large amounts of methane making them potential sources of methane emissions under projected warming temperatures and increasing rates of coastal erosion.

Dinoflagellate cysts from the upper Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) of Hornby Island, British Columbia, Canada, with implications for Nanaimo Group biostratigraphy and paleoenvironmental reconstructions