Louisiana

The trauma and devastation that resulted from Hurricane Katrina's landfall on August 29, 2005, produced a wide spread public perception of government neglect and ineptitude. Subsequently, a period of nationwide shame and concern for those most affected by the disaster elicited a wave of financial generosity from all social sectors. Yet, by late 2005 the media declared that the majority of Americans had become desensitized to the tragedy and its consequences, coining this shift in public perception as "Katrina fatigue." Thousands of volunteers contradicted this phenomenon, however, by performing service in the devastated city of New Orleans. Long-term volunteers defied "Katrina fatigue" by redirecting the trajectory of their lives so they could provide service. Conventionally accepted volunteer theory predicts that volunteers provide service and that their labor operates in conjunction with institutionally supported mechanisms of security and services.

The submerged paleodrainage system of the early Balize delta complex that extended onto the inner continental shelf at 1500 YBP has not been completely studied in great detail. This study interprets the environmental deltaic facies of the Balize Delta, in the Sandy Point region offshore the southeastern Louisiana coast from 120 km of seismic data and 48 vibracores. The stratigraphic and environmental units established in this study provide a geological framework for this area. Overlying Holocene deposits interpreted to be muds of prodelta and lower delta front origin were interpreted as having been deposited from the retreating delta sit atop a transgressive surface, indicated by the toplapping seismic reflectors, the ravinement surface. The deltaic facies below the ravinement surface are of regressive origin an inner shelf delta with widespread delta front sheet sands from a dense group of many distributaries. This research provides a concise methodology adapted from multiple studies for modeling deltaic facies of offshore sand resource targets.