Images

Beach loss and armoring at Goleta Beach, very low (negative) tide

Bedrock exposed at low tide along the beach at Isla Vista, California

Exposed bedrock on the beach during very low (negative) tide at Isla Vista, California

USGS oceanographer Dan Hoover uses a GPS-equipped backpack to measure sand elevations near the mouth of the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz, California, January 12, 2017. Surveys like this make long-term studies of coastal change possible.

USGS scientists readying a sonar-equipped boat to map the ocean bottom near Santa Cruz, Calif.

A sonar-equipped personal watercraft mapping the bathymetry underwater near Santa Cruz, Calif.

USGS scientist Daniel Hoover mapping the beach at Santa Cruz with a GPS-equipped backpack unit.

 USGS scientists setting up a lidar scanner on the pier to map the beach near Capitola, California.

At the 2016 AGU Fall Meeting, USGS geophysicist Stephanie Ross (right) speaks with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell about ways to help decision makers, emergency responders, and other stakeholders use scientific findings about tsunamis. Photo credit: USGS

Photograph from pole-mounted camera, looking west across the Skagit River delta and one of several large sediment fans that are moving 1-2 meters per day across the tidal flats. These fans threaten to bury the last intact stands of eelgrass in Skagit Bay, an important rearing habitat for juvenile salmon, crab, and other marine wildlife.

1-meter-resolution digital image mosaic along the southeast coast of O‘ahu was combined with lidar bathymetry data to create a shaded-relief image.

A USGS researcher gathers elevation data from an eroding coastal bluff in Arctic Alaska

Sandy beach and cliffs at Moss Landing, California

Large storm waves crashing on the rocks near Santa Cruz, California

The USGS strives to put coastal change data and information at the fingertips of users such as planners and emergency managers. The explicit goal is to enable users to integrate and apply USGS data and tools to address their specific needs. Online resources such as the Coastal Change Hazards (CCH) portal are designed with applied use of data in mind.

Researchers survey Elwha River elevation and depths. Clockwise from upper left: setting up a traditional survey instrument above the river; measuring river depths from a kayak with sonar and GPS; walking the beach with GPS backpacks; and determining offshore depths using a personal watercraft with GPS and sonar.

Large submarine slides off southern California (outlined in small white dots). Low-resolution bathymetry shown in light grey (approximately 100 meters/pixel). High-resolution bathymetry shown in darker grey (less than 20 meters/pixel).

Participants at the September 2016 Argus Workshop at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility in Duck, North Carolina, including many of the scientists named in this article (labeled). Rob Holman (Oregon State University) took the photo with a drone.

Photographs taken during Tropical Storm Colin (left, June 6, 2016) and one day later (right) on Sunset Beach in the town of St. Pete Beach, Florida. Storm waves eroded the beach and dune, producing a cliff-like feature called a beach scarp. Continuous video collected during a storm could provide more information about the processes causing this coastal change.

Screenshot of Total Water Level and Coastal-Change Forecast Viewer (<https://coastal.er.usgs.gov/hurricanes/research/twlviewer/>) on June 4, 2016, two days before Tropical Storm Colin was expected to hit Florida’s Gulf of America coast.

Three-dimensional view of the Hosgri fault 45 meters below the seafloor, revealing fault strands (black), and potential paths along the fault that fluid could follow (green/blue). The other colors represent different geologic layers.