Images

Photograph shows a USGS scientist navigating an all-terrain vehicle equipped with GPS, collecting topographic data on Rio Del Mar State Beach in Aptos, California. Gathering this type of information helps USGS scientists to document the changes in beach and nearshore morphology (or form and structure), caused by seasonal variations and storms.

USGS acting Marine Operations Manager Tim Elfers navigates a personal watercraft toward Cowell Beach in Santa Cruz to record bathymetric (depth) data along a transect.

Panoramic view from the cliffs above the San Lorenzo River and east of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and Main Beach. Santa Cruz municipal pier and other buildings are visible in the background.

USGS scientist surveying the ocean floor in front of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, October 20, 2014.

USGS scientist Jackson Currie navigates a personal watercraft towards Santa Cruz's Main Beach, to record bathymetric data along a transect.

A USGS scientist guides a personal watercraft toward Seabright Beach near the Santa Cruz Harbor entrance during bathymetric surveys.

A USGS technician surveys the seafloor bathymetry using a personal watercraft outfitted with global positioning systems (GPS) and echo sounders.

Location: Santa Cruz, California (near Steamers Lane).

A USGS technician surveys the seafloor bathymetry using a personal watercraft outfitted with global positioning systems (GPS) and echo sounders.

Location:Santa Cruz, California (near Santa Cruz Boardwalk).

Photograph of a USGS technician on a USGS coastal survey vessel that maps seafloor bathymetry using global positioning systems (GPS) and echo sounders.

Location:Santa Cruz, California (near Wharf).

A USGS technician surveys the seafloor bathymetry using a personal watercraft outfitted with global positioning systems (GPS) and echo sounders.

Location: Santa Cruz, California (near Wharf).

USGS scientist Jackson Currie deploys a chirp sub-bottom profiler (in the center) from research vessel Parke Snavely. The chirp is attached to pontoons to keep the equipment from running aground in the shallow waters of San Pablo Bay, California.

Visitors at Glines Canyon East Abutment in Olympic National Park, the location of the Elwha River Restoration project. Image available at Olympic National Park flickr site.

Scientists recover the Benthic OBservation camera Sled, or “BOB Sled,” onto the research vessel Parke Snavely

Photograph from a mounted time-lapse camera looking eastward along Barter Island’s north shore document how the coastal bluffs and beach changed during a single summer. The photograph shows a late-summer extreme storm with waves crashing into the bluff (September 3, 2014).

Photograph from a mounted time-lapse camera looking eastward along Barter Island’s north shore document how the coastal bluffs and beach changed during a single summer. The photograph shows a summer storm from the west eroding the beach (July 25, 2014).

Photographs from a mounted time-lapse camera looking eastward along Barter Island’s north shore document how the coastal bluffs and beach changed during a single summer. Photograph B: Ice-free and wide beach; dark-colored material on beach is fine-grained sediment eroded from bluffs (July 10, 2014).

Photo from a time-lapse camera looking eastward along the north shore of Barter Island on Alaska’s Arctic coast, June 15, 2014. View the complete time-lapse sequence to see how the coastal bluffs and beach changed during a single summer.

Underwater photo of a healthy coral reef.

Large swells from the north-northeast with heights up to 5 meters (16 feet) combined with unusually high tides inundated much of the Republic of the Marshall Islands on March 2, 2014.

Waves wash over a road on Roi-Namur Island, Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, during a particularly high tidal event. USGS is studying how slightly reduced rainfall combined with sea-level rise affect freshwater sources on low-lying Pacific coral islands.

Wave-driven flooding and overwash on Roi-Namur Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands