Images

This region of the California coastline is lined with coastal bluffs that have been shaped not only by runoff from rain, but also by wave- and wind-driven erosion. This photo from Pescadero State Beach displays an example of a bluff undergoing erosional processes. Water from the ocean, delivered in waves, can overtop some of these coastal bluffs.

Rigorously Valuing the Role of Florida’s Coral Reefs in Coastal Hazard Risk Reduction

Estimated Annual Benefits

Rigorously Valuing the Role of Hawaiʻi’s Coral Reefs in Coastal Hazard Risk Reduction

Estimated Annual Benefits

Rigorously Valuing the Role of the U.S. Virgin Islands’ Coral Reefs in Coastal Hazard Risk Reduction

Estimated Annual Benefits

Rigorously Valuing the Role of Puerto Rico’s Coral Reefs in Coastal Hazard Risk Reduction

Estimated Annual Benefits

Map displaying the distribution of total economic losses (direct building damages and indirect economic disruption) in the U.S. that are prevented from flooding by coral reefs annually. In total, the annual coastal flooding risk reduction benefits provided by U.S. coral reefs exceed \$1.8 billion.

Rigorously Valuing the Role of American Samoa’s Coral Reefs in Coastal Hazard Risk Reduction

Estimated Annual Benefits

Rigorously Valuing the Role of Guam’s Coral Reefs and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands’s Coral Reefs in Coastal Hazard Risk Reduction

Estimated Annual Benefits

Evolution of the shoreline around the Elwha River mouth, Washington, before, during and after dam removal, 2011–2017. Two large dams were removed from the Elwha River between 2011 and 2014 in the largest dam removal worldwide thus far, releasing more than 20 million tons of sediment downstream.

ROV SuBastian’s manipulator jaw stabilizes GEOMAR’s glowing bubble box that is capturing high-resolution images of methane bubbles rising from the seafloor.

Image map of study area showing (a) study region, (b) study sites, (c, d) example orthomosaic images, and (e) photo of SET 1.

Photographs showing equipment used during bathymetric and topographic surveys along the Columbia River littoral cell, Washington and Oregon.

Photo of 2019 Ozette Lake fieldwork (USGS scientists Dan Powers and Andy Ritchie retrieving a core sample aboard research vessel Hadai) and bathymetric map showing core locations.

Multibeam bathymetry shown in the spectrum from red (shallower) to blue (deeper) for depths greater than 200 m across the head of Astoria Canyon. The land and continental shelf are shown in grayscale slope shading where darker colors represent steeper slopes.  The modern Columbia River is far right.

Topography and bathymetry of southern Cascadia, which includes southern Oregon and northern California (seafloor depths between 200 and 3000 m are shown in the spectrum color scale from red (shallower) to purple (deeper). The land and continental shelf are shown in grayscale slope shading where darker colors represent steeper slopes.

USGS scientists Dan Powers (left) and Andy Ritchie retrieving a core sample from beneath Lake Ozette aboard research vessel Hadai.

Bathymetric map of Lake Ozette, showing locations of core samples (red circles).

 Two UNC mini landers, surrounded by Sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) and pink sea urchins, incubate seawater in situ to enable calculations of methane oxidation rates.

Red plumes burst out from the tops of these chemosynthetic tubeworms, capturing hydrogen sulfide and oxygen from the surrounding water to feed their bacterial endosymbionts. The tubeworm tubes provide a habitat for several benthic animals, including the pale pink branching octocorals seen here

Building 3 on the USGS Western Region campus in Menlo Park, California.

Building 1 formerly housed many different USGS groups, including the Western Coastal and Marine Geology team, but slowly has been leased out to other federal agencies like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Veterans Affairs (VA). At the right is the Menlo Survey Federal Credit Union.