Images

Two personal watercraft operators from the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California, navigate their personal watercraft (PWC) in the shallow nearshore region in Moss Landing near Elkhorn Slough. The PWCs are set up with precision GPS and echosounder systems in order to create detailed bathymetric maps (depth).

For typical beach surveys, USGS scientists drive an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) like the one shown here, equpped with precision GPS that collects location and elevation data. Driving along features such as high-water marks, and driving a grid pattern spaced by about 30 meters, enable the collection of a complete 3D representation of the beach surface.

USGS oceanographer Andrew Stevens, of the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California, sits on an all-terrain vehicle equipped with a precision GPS and other instruments. The GPS collects position data continuously, about 2 points per second, while an operator like Andrew drives the ATV over a beach.

Science and ship crew on board NOAA research vessel Rainier prepare the Chirp 512i off south-central California.

USGS oceanographer Shawn Harrison stands on the coastal bluff of Barter Island, Alaska at sunset. Shawn and his fellow researchers are studying how the highly erosive bluff changes under the varied conditions experienced by this stretch of coastline.

Audience at California's Premier Adaptation Gathering

Cover of the 2018 publication, "California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment: Statewide Summary Report."

Audience at California's Premier Adaptation Gathering

Unalakleet village on the low-lying barrier spit at the inlet of the Unalakleet River and Norton Sound, Alaska.

Jenny McKee and Peter Dal Farro of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center swing a pair of seismic sources, also called air guns, and the gun hanger, out over the water to deploy them during the 2018 MATRIX cruise. Scripps Institution of Oceanography's seismic streamer is coiled on the blue winch in the foreground.

Jenny McKee and Peter Dal Farro of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center swing a pair of seismic sources, also called air guns, and the gun hanger, out over the water to deploy them during the 2018 MATRIX cruise. Scripps Institution of Oceanography's seismic streamer is coiled on the blue winch in the foreground.

Entering Yaquina Bay, Oregon aboard the NOAA ship Rainier, approaching the Yaquina Bay Bridge with Newport Marina off to the right in the distance.

Engineering technician Jenny McKee from the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California watches as an expendable sonobuoy leaves the launcher during the 2018 MATRIX cruise on research vessel Hugh R.

USGS scientist Pete Dartnell processes multibeam data collected from off the Pacific Northwest coast on a research cruise aboard NOAA ship Rainier.

USGS scientists examining landslides in the Tuolumne watershed, California, caused by an extreme rain event in 2018.

USGS geophysicist Janet Watt on board NOAA ship Rainier as it sets sail from Newport Marina in Yaquina Bay, Newport, Oregon. Yaquina Bay Bridge is overhead.

Diana McCandless of the Washington State Department of Ecology pauses for a moment, on the beach around the point and to the east of the mouth of Elwha River. McCandless is part of a team of scientists from WA State and the USGS who are periodically mapping the delta and beach areas near the mouth of the Elwha River.

USGS and Washington State Department of Ecology scientists are geared up and ready to start a topographic survey at the mouth of the Elwha River, using handheld computers and backpack-mounted GPS equipment. From left to right are Owen Warrick (USGS Volunteer), Jon Warrick (USGS), Andy Ritchie (USGS), Heather Weiner (WA State Dept.

Natural Bridges State Beach, shown here in the middle of the photo, is nestled amongst coastal neighborhoods in the southwestern part of Santa Cruz, California. View is looking south. The offices of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center are just a few hundred feet north, outside the bottom portion of the photograph.

Elkhorn Slough is a tidal river delta, salt marsh, and estuary in Monterey County, California. It is near the community of Moss Landing and is fed by Carneros Creek.

USGS scientists produced an animated GIF in coordination with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) re-opening of State Highway 1 through Big Sur on July 18, 2018. In 2017, the massive Mud Creek landslide buried a quarter-mile of the famous coastal route with rocks and dirt more than 65 feet deep.