Images

In August of 2020, the enormous CZU wildfire complex consumed over 85,000 acres in San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties, leaving scarred landscapes in the hilly region. Runoff from large rainstorms in the winter months carry contaminants from the soils within these burned-out forests.

In August of 2020, the enormous CZU wildfire complex consumed over 85,000 acres in San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties, leaving scarred landscapes in the hilly region. Runoff from large rainstorms in the winter months carry contaminants from the soils within these burned-out forests.

Rilling and a shallow landslide in CZU Fire near Eagle Rock, California. Soil ~3 cm below surface was almost completely dry after the rain storm, highlighting soil water repellancy.  

The atmospheric river, a narrow, powerful track of water vapor that can deliver tremendous volumes of rain, hit the central California coast and stalled there between January 26 and 28, 2021 — with catastrophic consequences.

A two-day rainstorm from January 26-28, 2021 caused numerous mudslides, debris flows, and other issues along California's coastal Highway 1 through Big Sur. This section is just north of Wild Cattle Creek. Mud washed across the roadway from the cliffs in numerous locations along the 70+-mile stretch of this scenic coastal road.

The atmospheric river, a narrow, powerful track of water vapor that can deliver tremendous volumes of rain, hit the central California coast and stalled there between January 26 and 28, 2021 — with catastrophic consequences.

A two-day rainstorm from January 26-28, 2021 caused numerous mudslides, debris flows, and other issues along California's coastal Highway 1 through Big Sur. This section is just north of Kirk Creek, at a drainage where mud was washed across the roadway. Plumes of the muddy runoff are clearly visible in the ocean.

A two-day rainstorm from January 26-28, 2021 caused numerous mudslides, debris flows, and other issues along California's coastal Highway 1 through Big Sur. This section is just north of Kirk Creek, at a drainage where mud was washed across the roadway. Plumes of the muddy runoff are clearly visible in the ocean.

California's Highway 1 snakes its way along the steep terrain of the Big Sur coast. The bridge over Villa Creek can be seen in the left of the photo, as well as a retaining wall built under the freeway towards the center. These are just a few of the engineering feats by Caltrans to keep the roadway intact.

A two-day rainstorm from January 26-28, 2021 caused numerous mudslides, debris flows, and other issues along California's coastal Highway 1 through Big Sur. This is Big Creek Bridge, and Big Creek is still murky. Plumes of the muddy runoff are clearly visible in the ocean.

A section of Highway 1 along the California coast in Big Sur with more examples of the numerous debris flows and mudslides that occur following a heavy rain. This section is just south of the Rat Creek debris flow that completely washed out a large chunk of the highway.

The atmospheric river, a narrow, powerful track of water vapor that can deliver tremendous volumes of rain, hit the central California coast and stalled there between January 26 and 28, 2021 — with catastrophic consequences.

On May 20, 2017, this section of the Big Sur coastline experienced a huge landslide that wiped out scenic coastal Highway 1. By July 2018 the roadway was reopened.

Diagram of the SQUID-5 towed surface vehicle and the waterproof camera housings with labeled components. The camera mounting mechanism aligns the camera axially with the dome and allows the camera to be adjusted fore and aft to accommodate various lens types and enable alignment with the glass port radius of curvature for minimal distortion.

Perspective view of large SfM point cloud of region of Fort Funston, CA., without automated data cleaning (masking).

As part of the Remote Sensing of Coastal Change and Florence Supplemental projects we have been developing novel workflows for repeat-mapping of ­­­coastal environments at order decimeter resolution over up to hundreds of kilometers in a single day, using Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry or SfM, from crewed aerial platforms.

Perspective view of large SfM point cloud of region of Fort Funston, CA., with automated data cleaning (masking). This cleaned data has 50% fewer points.

Ocean Beach in San Francisco looking north

The USGS will be using an autonomous surf vehicle, built by Peter Traykovski of WHOI, to map the bathymetry of the Pea Island DUNEX Experiment Site. 

The autonomous surf vehicle, built and controlled remotely  by Peter Traykovski of WHOI, is used to map the bathymetry of the Pea Island DUNEX Experiment Site. 

Far out, man... where science meets art