Images

At left, USGS Marine Technician Jenny White steadies an instrumented platform as it is winched into the water at the Middle station (see map of study area), where the depth of the bay floor is 0.5 m below MLLW. Photograph taken February 2, 2011, by Lissa MacVean.

Bathymetry—the measurement of water depth of a body of water (e.g., ocean, sea, river, bay, lake, etc.)

The ARkStorm scenario led by the USGS and hundreds of scientists and experts from many disciplines details impacts of a scientifically plausible storm similar to the Great California Storm of 1862 in the modern day.

Estimated coastal inundation (blue shading) at Mission Bay in San Diego, California, using the Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) developed for ARkStorm. (From USGS Open-File Report 2010-1312.) 

Jumbo piston corer on deck of United States Coast Guard Cutter Healy in the Arctic Ocean.

In 2010, USGS researcher Brian Edwards recovers white chunks of gas hydrate (methane ice) mixed with gray sediment from a metal core sample tube retrieved from the seafloor in the Arctic Ocean at a water depth of approximately 8,000 feet.

Cross section of a hydrothermal vent chimney from East Diamante Caldera in the Mariana volcanic arc, west Pacific Ocean, collected during a 2010 research cruise. Most of the sample is zinc sulfide.

Cross section of a hydrothermal vent chimney from East Diamante Caldera in the Mariana volcanic arc, west Pacific Ocean, collected during a 2010 research cruise. Most of the sample is zinc sulfide.

John Pohlman (USGS, left) and colleagues from the University of Alaska Fairbanks examine a sediment core retrieved through winter ice from the bottom of a lake in northern Alaska. Such cores are used to reconstruct methane emissions and climate history over the past 20,000 years.

Bluff erosion during the 2009–10 El Niño undermined the Great Highway guardrail at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California. The shoreline eroded, on average, 55 meters that winter, leading to lane closures on the highway and an emergency \$5-million revetment along the base of this bluff.

Bluff erosion during the 2009–10 El Niño undermined the Great Highway guardrail at the southern end of Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California. The shoreline eroded, on average, 55 meters that winter, leading to lane closures on the highway and an emergency \$5-million revetment along the base of this bluff. Photo taken by Jeff Hansen, USGS, 20 January 2010.

Severe coastal bluff erosion, along the southern end of Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California. This storm damage occurred during the 2009-2010 El Niño, which, on average, eroded the shoreline 55 meters that winter.

Severe coastal bluff erosion, along the southern end of Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California. This storm damage occurred during the 2009-2010 El Niño, which, on average, eroded the shoreline 55 meters that winter.

Severe bluff erosion, along the southern end of Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California, including damage to the guard rail of the Great Highway (Calif. Hwy.1). The severe winter erosion led to lane closures of the highway and an emergency, $5 million revetment along the base of this bluff.

 U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy breaks ice ahead of the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St-Laurent on September 1, 2009. The two ships were part of a multi-year, multi-agency Arctic survey that will help define the North American continental shelf.

Top left: Seafloor photograph of a boulder, cobbles, and shell debris taken during the northern California ground-truthing cruise. Image is about 2 m (7 ft) across. Top right: Seafloor photograph of a rock outcrop covered with strawberry anemones, taken near Reading Rock in northern California.

Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St. Laurent alongside U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy in the Arctic Ocean. The United States and Canada are mapping the Arctic seafloor and gathering data to help define the outer limits of the continental shelf in this region. 

The USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, located in Santa Cruz, California, owns and operates the research vessel R/V Parke Snavely to collect data and run surveys.

Aluminum roofs and debris transported behind the village of Tula on the east shore of American Samoa following the Tsunami that hit the island on Sept. 29, 2009. The tsunami runup was 16-26 feet in Tula.

Tsunami flow depth at Alofau, American Samoa following the tsunami that hit the island on Sept. 29, 2009.

Tsunami flow depth indicator at Fagasa, American Samoa following the tsunami that hit the island on Sept. 29, 2009. Vegetation is brown where it was submerged by the tsunami and green above.