Images

USGS scientists collect core samples from estuaries, lakes, coasts, and marine environments to study a range of physical and chemical properties preserved in sediments over time. They process and analyze these core samples in the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Core Labs.

USGS scientists collect core samples from estuaries, lakes, coasts, and marine environments to study a range of physical and chemical properties preserved in sediments over time. They process and analyze these core samples in the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Core Labs. 

USGS scientists collect core samples from estuaries, lakes, coasts, and marine environments to study a range of physical and chemical properties preserved in sediments over time. They process and analyze these core samples in the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Core Labs.

USGS scientists collect core samples from estuaries, lakes, coasts, and marine environments to study a range of physical and chemical properties preserved in sediments over time. They process and analyze these core samples in the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Core Labs. 

USGS scientists collect core samples from estuaries, lakes, coasts, and marine environments to study a range of physical and chemical properties preserved in sediments over time. They process and analyze these core samples in the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Core Labs.

USGS scientists collect core samples from estuaries, lakes, coasts, and marine environments to study a range of physical and chemical properties preserved in sediments over time. They process and analyze these core samples in the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s Core Labs.

Bathymetric map of Ozette Lake in Washington State. Cover image for the Ozette Lake Paleoseismology video.

Site maps of two sections of the southern California coast with high rates of beach narrowing, from the study Net widening of Southern California beaches.

Site maps of three sections of the southern California coast with high rates of beach widening, from the study Net widening of Southern California beaches.

Aerial nadir view of a sandy shoreline in southern California.

Integrated beach change for the northern, central, and southern regions of California, from the study Net widening of Southern California beaches.

Study locations in San Pablo and Grizzly Bays, from the study Biophysical Controls on Sediment Erodibility in Shallow Estuarine Embayments.

The amphipod Ampelisca abdita and its characteristic tube mat in sediment, from the study Biophysical Controls on Sediment Erodibility in Shallow Estuarine Embayments.

Geologic model for abyssal seismoturbidite generation along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. (A) With each earthquake cycle, slope failures occur on the oversteepened limbs of thrust folds in the accretionary wedge, resulting in proximal MTDs and turbidity flows that spread out across the abyssal plain.

Enlargements of 1-m AUV bathymetry overlain on 30-m bathymetry grid for the study area along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. (A) The AUV bathymetry data reveal a 10m high failure scarp that extends for 4km along the seaward face of the frontal thrust fold. Secondary reverse faults observed in the chirp subbottom data are expressed at the seafloor with ~3m offsets.

USGS Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) flood hazard maps for coastal adaptation planning across California are now available state-wide.

Map showing locations of cores coded by tidal regime and colored by region within the San Francisco Estuary, from the study Predicting Sediment Bulk Density for San Francisco Estuary.

Linear regression model showing percent fines in sediment samples collected in San Francisco Bay, from the study Predicting Sediment Bulk Density for San Francisco Estuary.

Collage showing different sediment core collection techniques used in the study Predicting Sediment Bulk Density for San Francisco Estuary.

Scientists bob coring at Ozette Lake in 2025.

Animated GIF showing an illustration of zooplankton layers moving up and down the water column over a mesophotic reef.