Images

Geology and geomorphology offshore of Fort Ross, California, showing location of the San Andreas Fault and slope failures in the fault zone.

Left: USGS research hydrologist Mark Reid (left) and USGS research geologist Kevin Schmidt collect GPS data along the Big Sur coast on September 19, 2007. Photo credit: Maiana Hanshaw, USGS (now with swisstopo).

Pamela Swarzenski from the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center sampling gas released by gas hydrate breakdown during a quantitative degassing aboard the drilling vessel Chikyu during the Indian Government’s National Gas Hydrates Program (NGHP-02) drilling expedition offshore from eastern India.

Bathymetry data of Columbia River mouth, derived from an interferometric swath bathymetry systems survey in 2013. A) Swath map of data; B-E) sample detail pull-outs

Waves breaking over offshore reefs on Kwajalein Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, where reefs are protecting developed land from flooding.

USGS geophysicist Jared Kluesner points at a three-dimensional cross-section of seismic data about 40 kilometers across and several kilometers deep located in the Santa Barbara Channel. This imaging deep below the seafloor allows scientists to visualize and map faults better.

Jared Kluesner displays a 3D view of seismic data collected off Santa Barbara. This visualization helps him analyze the Earth’s layers from the seafloor (rainbow-colored surface) to several kilometers below (slices extending down from the colored surface).

Aerial image showing beach and offshore reef

Aerial image showing beach and offshore reef

USGS marine technician Pete Dal Ferro, from the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, prepares to deploy the bubbler system from an inflatable vessel offshore of Santa Cruz, California. The compressed air was stored in the large white cylinder, and the yellow air hose was connected to a garden soaker hose wrapped around a weight.

USGS scientist David Ponce measuring gravity using a gravimeter along the Hayward-Rodgers Creek fault zone just north of San Pablo Bay, California.

USGS scientists Kevin Denton (left), Katherine “Kyeti” Morgan, and David Ponce set up a magnetic base station during fieldwork along the Hayward-Rodgers Creek fault zone in wheat fields north of San Pablo Bay.

Scientists deploy a mooring holding current meters and other instruments on October 6, 2015.

USGS oceanographer Kurt Rosenberger prepares a mooring for deployment from the research vessel Rachel Carson on October 6, 2015. The tan, cone-shaped instrument is a sediment trap. Near the far end of the trap is a CTD (with small red tag) for measuring seawater conductivity (related to salinity), temperature, and depth.

A large wave crashes on the reef at Laysan Island, located in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

U.S. Geological Survey scientist walks on a coastal bluff in Alaska.

This flooded airport runway used to be the main lifeline for inhabitants of Barter Island, Alaska, before it was relocated in response to consistent flooding.

Photograph of an eroding coastal bluff on Barter Island on the northern coast of Alaska.

Left, Cordell Johnson drilling and coring the interior of the bluff to ground-truth geophysical methods. Right, a core section filled mostly with ice.

San Clemente Dam was a 106-foot-high concrete arch dam that was located approximately 18.5 miles from the Pacific Ocean on the Carmel River. It was built in 1921 to create a reservoir to support the growing residential, agricultural, and tourism-related development.

Sam Johnson explaining details of the Hosgri fault zone at USGS offices in Santa Cruz.