Images

Alaska Department of Fish and Games vessel Solstice carried USGS scientists for three weeks in May 2015 while they mapped 650 square kilometers of seafloor and features beneath the seafloor in fine detail.

 This colored shaded-relief bathymetry map of the Offshore of San Francisco map area in northern California was generated from bathymetry data collected by California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) and by Fugro Pelagos (fig. 1).

Mapping along the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault required several days aboard the Alaska Department of Fish and Game research vessel Solstice. Here, the boat sits in a marina near Cordova, Alaska.

Aerial photograph of Kwajalein Atoll showing its low-lying islands and coral reefs.

Aerial photograph of Kwajalein Atoll showing its low-lying islands and coral reefs.

Underwater image of a wave breaking over a coral reef on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. This image shows how the high hydrodynamic roughness of live, healthy corals causes friction that induces breaking of waves over coral reefs, reducing wave energy at the shoreline that can cause flooding and island overwash.

Aerial photograph of Kwajalein Atoll showing its low-lying islands and coral reefs.

Aerial photograph of Kwajalein Atoll showing its low-lying islands and coral reefs.

Aerial photograph of Kwajalein Atoll showing its low-lying islands and coral reefs.

Aerial photograph of Kwajalein Atoll showing its low-lying islands and coral reefs.

Jenny White and Pete Dal Ferro, engineering technicians from the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California, deploy a piston core from the stern of Research Vessel Sharp.

Research geologist Curt Storlazzi free-dives in order to set an instrument on the reef off Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi in March of 2015.

USGS research geologist Curt Storlazzi free dives in order to set an instrument on the reef off Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi in March 2015.

Benjamin Norris in a mangrove forest on the southern edge of the island of Cù Lao Dung, situated in the lower Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Ben is carrying a Nortek Vectrino Profiler, a high-resolution velocity sensor, which is attached to a custom-made frame that can be driven by hand into the soft sediment of the mangrove forest to collect data.

Re-vegetation in the river valley at the Elwha River restoration site. Image available at Olympic National Park flickr site.

Mangrove forest at high tide, on the southern edge of the island of Cù Lao Dung and situated in the lower Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

Reflectors are placed throughout a lidar scan area to help reference where the lidar points are in space. Andrew Stevens, USGS, surveys Capitola Beach, walks past a reflector mounted on a tall, yellow tripod in front of the light blue building.

Knowing how much sand is removed and returned by big storm events can help show how waterfronts, like this one in Capitola, change with time.

USGS geologist Bruce Richmond prepares to deploy a pipe dredge that will be dragged along the seabed to collect sediment.

Josh Logan (USGS PCMSC) surveys position and elevation of instrumentation to measure water level and suspended-sediment concentration in the marsh at China Camp State Park in Marin County CA, adjacent to San Pablo Bay (northern San Francisco Bay).

Special camera rig and precision GPS receiver (right) designed to take Structure from Motion photos from a small airplane.