Images

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.

Car thrown into building in Pago Pago, American Samoa during the tsunami that struck the island on Sept. 29, 2009.

Boat thrown onto fish pond in Maloata, American Samoa following the tsunami that hit the island on Sept. 29, 2009.

The water from the tsunami that hit American Samoa on September 29, 2009 was strong enough to destroy homes and move large objects, such as the boulder pictured here.

USGS oceanographer Bruce Jaffe standing next to a boat thrown ashore in Pago Pago, American Samoa by the tsunami that hit the island on Sept. 29, 2009.

Marie Chan Kau, a staff member at American Samoa Community College and a member of the International Tsunami Survey Team, points to the maximum water level reached by the tsunami that struck American Samoa on Sept. 29, 2009. This spot, found in Fagasa, American Samoa, is about about 10 meters above sea level.

Cars damaged by the tsunami in Fagasa, American Samoa. The tsunami hit the island on Sept. 29, 2009.

Only the foundation of a house in Fagasa, American Samoa remains after the tsunami hit on Sept. 29, 2009.

Roof moved into the ocean in Fagasa, American Samoa following the tsunami that hit the island on Sept. 29, 2009.

Sediment inundated a building in Pago Pago, American Samoa as a result of a Tsunami that struck the coast on Sept. 29, 2009.

The Native communities’ in-ground food storage facilities are being lost as a result of eroding bluffs and thawing permafrost.

Looking astern, the airgun sled is in its cradle in the center of the photo.  The crew are manually recovering the multichannel streamer and beginning the large figure-8 shape of coiling it on deck. Work at sea occurs 24 hours a day.  In late September, there is ~12 hours of night, resulting in gear recovery at night.

USGS divers Steve Rubin and Reg Reisenbichler laying out a survey transect in the Elwha River in northern Washington.

This photograph shows birds taking flight near Icy Cape on the Chukchi Sea coast of Alaska, an area that provides habitat for a variety of avian species.

USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s research vessel R/V Parke Snavely motors on the Nisqually Reach of Puget Sound.

Kelp greenling fish, about 8 inches long, swims above a seafloor of mixed gravel, cobble, and rock near Half Moon Bay, California.

Eric Grossman and Rob Wyland reviewing bathymetry data as it's being collected, on R/V Parke Snavely.

USGS research geologist Curt Storlazzi installs an instrument package on the seafloor of Maunalua Bay, Oʻahu. The platform, called a MiniPROBE, hosts six upward-looking acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP), seven conductivity and temperature (CT) sensors, and eight self-logging optical backscatter sensors (SLOBS).

Grand Canyon sand was photographed with a hand-held point-and-shoot camera in a waterproof housing.

USGS scientists from the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center (PCMSC) in Santa Cruz, California deploy an instrument called the poking eyeball. The system, developed by PCMSC, was designed to take repetitive microscopic images of the seabed from a tripod on the seafloor.

Helicopter on the deck of a Canadian coast guard ice breaker ship in the Arctic Ocean.