Images

Photographs taken during Tropical Storm Colin (left, June 6, 2016) and one day later (right) on Sunset Beach in the town of St. Pete Beach, Florida. Storm waves eroded the beach and dune, producing a cliff-like feature called a beach scarp. Continuous video collected during a storm could provide more information about the processes causing this coastal change.

1-meter-resolution digital image mosaic along the southeast coast of O‘ahu was combined with lidar bathymetry data to create a shaded-relief image.

Seafloor offshore of Point Estero (PE) showing east (EH) and west (WH) strands of the Hosgri fault zone. Arrow points to a seafloor slope (a 12,000 year old shoreline) that has been offset by the east Hosgri strand, indicating a slip rate of about 2.6 millimeters per year.

Large submarine slides off southern California (outlined in small white dots). Low-resolution bathymetry shown in light grey (approximately 100 meters/pixel). High-resolution bathymetry shown in darker grey (less than 20 meters/pixel).

Researchers survey Elwha River elevation and depths. Clockwise from upper left: setting up a traditional survey instrument above the river; measuring river depths from a kayak with sonar and GPS; walking the beach with GPS backpacks; and determining offshore depths using a personal watercraft with GPS and sonar.

Screenshot of Total Water Level and Coastal-Change Forecast Viewer (<https://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/research/twlviewer/>) on June 4, 2016, two days before Tropical Storm Colin was expected to hit Florida’s Gulf of America coast.

At the 2016 AGU Fall Meeting, USGS geophysicist Stephanie Ross (right) speaks with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell about ways to help decision makers, emergency responders, and other stakeholders use scientific findings about tsunamis. Photo credit: USGS

Video-camera station installed by Jenna Brown and Joe Long atop a hotel in Madeira Beach, Florida.

A USGS researcher gathers elevation data from an eroding coastal bluff in Arctic Alaska

Sandy beach and cliffs at Moss Landing, California

Large storm waves crashing on the rocks near Santa Cruz, California

Map view. Colored shaded-relief bathymetry map of Monterey Canyon and Vicinity map area, generated from multibeam-echosounder and bathymetric-sidescan data. Colors show depth: reds and oranges indicate shallower areas; purples, deeper areas. Illumination azimuth is 300°, from 45° above horizon.

Photographs showing equipment used during bathymetric and topographic surveys along the Columbia River littoral cell, Washington and Oregon.

Mount Crillon in the backdrop during a multibeam bathymetry survey of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault, offshore southeastern Alaska.

Participants at the September 2016 Argus Workshop at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility in Duck, North Carolina, including many of the scientists named in this article (labeled). Rob Holman (Oregon State University) took the photo with a drone.

USGS ocean engineer Gerry Hatcher with the camera system he helped create for recording the precise time and geographic location of each air photo it takes. The system is mounted in the cargo compartment of a Cessna 182R airplane and takes photos through a window cut into a removable cargo door (right).

Southern California cliff and cliff-top development in Isla Vista, California

On October 6, 2016, scientists lower an instrument package on a taut-wire mooring into the canyon. The sediment trap (long funnel-shaped device) is designed to capture mud and sand carried in turbidity flows; the other sensors measure currents and suspended sediment.

Sediment trap is being prepared for deployment into Monterey Canyon offshore of Monterey, California.

Six USGS scientists presented their research at the 6th International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals in September, 2016. This all-female force hailed from USGS centers in West Virginia, California, and Florida. Left to right: Jill Bourque, Cheryl Morrison, Nancy Prouty, Katharine Coykendall, Amanda Demopoulos, Christina Kellogg.

USGS is studying climate change impacts to U.S. Pacific and Arctic coasts. Alaska’s north coast is predominantly erosional, retreating on average about 1.4 meters per year.