The eastern coastline of Staten Island is vulnerable to both storm surge and sea level rise, as evidenced by extensive inundation during Superstorm Sandy in 2012. On this developed beach, there have been many attempts to lessen erosion, most notably the installation of groins to interrupt littoral drift of beach sand and artificial dunes to protect areas most vulnerable to erosion. The Army Corps of Engineers plan to install a more extensive protective system by 2030, consisting mostly of a buried seawall. This study reports on a series of five beach surveys conducted over the course of a year, to interpret current processes and variations in sediment movement as well as providing a baseline for any changes that may occur after the seawall is constructed. During each survey, 12 transects were measured using ranging poles and a Brunton transit to map the slope of the beach from the low tide mark to the base of the small dunes. Sand samples were collected at intervals along these transects, and sieved for grain size analysis. The profiles are typical of a sandy, wave-dominated beach, with a ridge of coarse sand and gravel at the low tide line and a beach face angle of 5-8°, levelling out beyond the top of the berm. Generally, the beach face is composed of medium to coarse sand, with moderate to poor sorting. These characteristics are typical of a reflective shoreline in an area with a low tidal range. Although the beach is significantly wider on the up-current side of the groins, the beach face angle is similar to the rest of the beach due to wave action. The narrowest parts of the beach are at the locations of greatest erosion, and are found where longshore currents diverge or behind large groins where the beach is starved of sediment. At these locations, artificial dunes form part of the sediment supply when they are eroded, influencing the grain size of the beach sands. Another anthropogenic influence comes from the practice of beach raking, which appears to lower the level of the backshore during summer. It may also have an influence on the grain size distribution in the remaining sand. Overall, the natural reflective nature of the shoreline along with anthropogenic influence in a densely populated area, leave it vulnerable to future storms and sea level rise. Future monitoring and comparison with this baseline will assist with mitigating these hazards.

Interpretation of landscape evolution and glacial history in built-up areas relies on small and often temporary exposures of sediment created during construction, aided by the examination of lidar data and published descriptions of past outcrops. This study focuses on two outcrops of fluvioglacial sediments in the southern part of Staten Island, and places them in the context of published work on the surrounding area. It aims to resolve an earlier disagreement on the origin and timing of these sediments, previously interpreted as either Pliocene Pennsauken Formation or Nebraskan glacial outwash. The two sites are approximately 30 m apart, and were exposed at different times. However, detailed logging of the beds and grain size analysis of samples collected provides a clear picture of the relationship between them. Combining the data from the two sites, we see an approximately 3.5 m thick sequence of sands and gravels with abundant cross-bedding, interpreted as fluvioglacial outwash. This sequence directly overlies the Cretaceous Raritan Formation at the first location and is capped by Wisconsinan glacial till at the second location. Potentially, this stratigraphy could be valid for either the Pennsauken Formation or pre-Wisconsinan glacial outwash, so additional evidence is needed. Sedimentary structures and grain size distributions would be similar in both cases, however the pebble compositions seen here suggest reworking of earlier glacial till, and do not match reported compositions from the Pennsauken Formation. These outcrops also appear to be lower in altitude than the projected base of the Pennsauken plain, suggesting that these sediments were deposited in a valley eroded into both the Raritan and Pennsauken Formations. Based on this work, the most likely origin of these sediments is pre-Wisconsinan glacial outwash, however it is possible that any future exposure during construction could provide further evidence to contradict this interpretation. Ultimately, this work should continue as the location of Staten Island between New Jersey and Long Island is essential for correlating Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits from these independently studied locations.