Images

A restored coral reef off Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, showing a mix of both concrete “Reef Balls” to rebuild reef topographic complexity and a variety of out-planted natural corals to increase coral coverage and species diversity.

Seismic equipment is craned off research vessel Pelican at the dock in Cocodrie, Louisiana, after a 15-day expedition to explore gas hydrates in the deepwater Gulf of America.

USGS technicians Eric Moore (left) and Jenny White deploy air guns (silver cylinders), compressor hose (black), and orange buoys at the start of a seismic survey to explore gas hydrates in the deepwater Gulf of America.

The San Clemente Dam, built in the 1920s on the Carmel River in Monterey County, California, was removed during 2014 and 2015.

Screen capture of a video collected March 8, 2013, on the west side of the Elwha River delta in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Washington. Seafloor is about 30 meters (100 feet) deep. This area has strong currents and a lot of material (suspended sediment) in the water. Two red laser dots near the bottom of the video are 10 centimeters (nearly 4 inches) apart.

Snapshot from a video collected February 12, 2013, off the Olowalu area on the northwest side of the Hawaiian island of Maui. Seafloor is about 10 meters (30 feet) deep. This setting provides an example of extremely clear tropical water and ambient light. The sea turtle's shell is approximately 1 meter (3 feet) long.

New USGS deepwater tripod, called the free-ascending tripod, or FAT. Here, it sits on the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf in Santa Cruz, California.

New USGS deepwater tripod, called the free-ascending tripod, or FAT, suspended from a crane before being lowered into water. Some of the instruments mounted on the tripod have been labeled. 

USGS personnel adding pieces of syntactic foam (composed of glass microspheres embedded in resin) that will provide buoyancy to raise the tripod to the surface for recovery. Left to right: Jingping Xu, Hank Chezar, Kurt Rosenberger, and Peter Harkins.

Underwater photograph off Molokaʻi Hawaiʻi, showing some of the impacts of land-based pollution, such as terrestrial sediment, on coral reefs: burial by sediment, algal overgrowth, and coral bleaching.

Perspective view of seafloor offshore of Half Moon Bay, showing scarp (arrows) along the eastern strand of the San Gregorio fault zone. Rocks are notably upwarped and folded adjacent to the fault.

A massive colony of Paragorgia (bubble gum coral) with a squat lobster hiding among the polyps.

High tide (left) and low tide (right) at study site in Lynch Cove, at the head of Hood Canal, Washington. Summer 2012 USGS fieldwork was made possible by Dr. Bill Portuese and his family, who graciously offered the use of their dock and beach for the USGS experiments.

Well cluster installed in June 2012 to a depth of 10 meters (33 feet) below the beach face. Photograph taken at low tide; the white PVC extensions prevented the wells from being flooded during high tide (compare with photograph of research team standing on same dock, above).

Figure 2 from the 2012 publication, "Arrival and Expansion of the Invasive Foraminifera Trochammina hadai Uchio in Padilla Bay, Washington," by McGann, et al. Trochammina hadai Uchio: A, dorsal view; B, edge view; C, ventral view.

A squat lobster and small Black belly rosefish huddle near a den on a small ledge in Baltimore Canyon.

A venus flytrap anemone on the lip of a small ridge, with numerous other small animals.

USGS hydrologist Kaitlyn Colella and a Shinnecock Nation member work together gathering oyster and bed sediment samples along Long Island, New York, coast.

Lidar data collected in 2010 and 2012 showing a change in the beach profile. Spot marked by vertical arrow was about 1 meter (3 feet) higher after two years.

A red crab trying to crack open a seep mussel, seen during the Deepwater Canyons 2012 Expedition.

USGS research team set out instrumentation for a coastal groundwater exchange study in Lynch Cove, Hood Canal, Washington. Left to right are Peter Swarzenski, Wally Brooks, Christopher G. Smith, Sandy Baldwin, Marci Marot, Cordell Johnson, and Kevin Kroeger.