Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

News

News from the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Deep-Sea Studies

A map showing the ocean floor with shades of color to indicate changing depth, nd other demarkations to show various features

In 2022, the USGS and partners embarked on a research expedition to Escanaba Trough off the coast of northern California. The multidisciplinary crew collected samples with a remotely operated vehicle and tested new seafloor mapping techniques using an autonomous underwater vehicle.

Watch Videos, Read News, and Learn More

Sound Waves Newsletter

An animated GIF of a coral reef in American Samoa, showing colorful reef fish darting in and out of the coral

Read issues of the Sound Waves Newsletter, featuring “Coastal and Marine Research News from Across the USGS”

Sound Waves Newsletter
Filter Total Items: 597
Recent Coastal and Marine Fieldwork - March 2017

Recent Coastal and Marine Fieldwork - March 2017

USGS scientists visited five states and the British Virgin Islands in the past month, studying tsunami deposits, eelgrass habitat, storm damage, and...

Read Article
Disappearing Beaches: Modeling Shoreline Change in Southern California

Disappearing Beaches: Modeling Shoreline Change in Southern California

Using a newly-developed computer model called “CoSMoS-COAST” (Coastal Storm Modeling System – Coastal One-line Assimilated Simulation Tool) scientists...

Read Article
Preparing for Tsunami Hazards on Washington’s Pacific Coast

Preparing for Tsunami Hazards on Washington’s Pacific Coast

Hours before Japan was struck by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and the ensuing catastrophic tsunami, John Schelling spoke at a public meeting in the...

Read Article
News Briefs - January-February 2017

News Briefs - January-February 2017

Coastal and marine news highlights from across the USGS

Read Article
Advances in Topobathymetric Mapping

Advances in Topobathymetric Mapping

In coastal environments, elevation is perhaps the most fundamental variable determining vulnerability. Accurate high-resolution digital elevation...

Read Article
Helping Communities Understand Future Coastal Hazards

Helping Communities Understand Future Coastal Hazards

The USGS Coastal Processes Team has developed the Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) to help residents of coastal California understand their...

Read Article
Striking New Seafloor Imagery of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault in the Gulf of Alaska

Striking New Seafloor Imagery of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault in the Gulf of Alaska

In 2016 the USGS led two geophysical surveys of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault off the coast of southeast Alaska, using multibeam sonar to map...

Read Article
Mystery Gap: Connecting Earthquake Faults near San Francisco, California, Requires Many Approaches

Mystery Gap: Connecting Earthquake Faults near San Francisco, California, Requires Many Approaches

New USGS mapping studies in San Pablo Bay, California, show that two of the region’s earthquake faults—the Hayward and Rodgers Creek faults—connect...

Read Article
Severe West Coast Erosion During 2015-16 El Niño

Severe West Coast Erosion During 2015-16 El Niño

In a study released today, U.S. Geological Survey scientists and their colleagues document how the 2015-16 winter featured one of the most powerful El...

Read Article
Gelfenbaum Selected as New Director of USGS Pacific Marine Studies

Gelfenbaum Selected as New Director of USGS Pacific Marine Studies

The U.S. Geological Survey is pleased to announce the selection of Dr. Guy Gelfenbaum as the new director of their Pacific Coastal and Marine Science...

Read Article
Media Advisory: Mapping Beach Changes Caused by Recent Storms

Media Advisory: Mapping Beach Changes Caused by Recent Storms

On January 13, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey will be working on the beach in Santa Cruz at the mouth of the San Lorenzo River. Using a...

Read Article