Images

Views of Cowells Beach in Santa Cruz, California, from a 10-minute video shot on May 6, 2017. Snapshot (first frame in video) on left; time-averaged image on right.

Sandy Brosnahan (left) and Jon Borden at Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) training in Santa Cruz, California.

The 3DR Solo with GoPro Hero4 camera and gimbal. Coming to a beach near you soon.

Using the computer-driven triaxial micro-milling machine to subsample a coral slab. 

SEM image of a Globigerinoides ruber specimen from the Gulf of Mexico.

Photo of waves on the beach at Fire Island

Photo collage of the shoreline, beaches, and dunes at Fire Island

Elkhorn corals (Acropora palmata) on the seafloor along the northeastern coast of Buck Island, U.S. Virgin Islands, have died and collapsed into rubble. As coral reef structure degrades, habitat for marine life is lost and nearby coastlines become more susceptible to storms, waves, and erosion.

Healthy elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) on the seafloor along the southeastern coast of Buck Island, U.S. Virgin Islands. Elkhorn coral is one of many important reef-building species that create 3D structure on the seafloor. Coral reef structure provides habitat for marine life and helps break up waves as they approach the coastline.

Arctica islandica shells have been sectioned with a saw and embedded in epoxy for further analysis.

Tropical Storm Nate's predicted effect on Northern Gulf sandy shorelines, based on landfall as a Category 1 hurricane,  is shown at three intensities. Outer band:  Dune erosion. Middle band: Dune overwash. Inner band: Dune inundation, with potential flooding behind the dune. Credit: USGS Coastal Change Hazard Portal.

Marsh shoreline inundation during high tide north of a marsh sampling site around Middle Bay in the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Mississippi.

Photograph of a purple sunrise at Bayou Heron boat ramp in the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Mississippi.

Marsh shoreline inundation during high tide at a marsh sampling site around Middle Bay in the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Mississippi.

The USGS uses observations and data collection in the back-barrier environment at Fire Island, NY to inform numerical models.

USGS monitors the growth rates of the threatened Elkhorn Coral (Acropora palmata) at Dry Tortugas National Park (pictured) and throughout the Florida Keys, U.S.A.

Looking at the sunset on the Gulf of America through a window of Fort Jefferson on Dry Torgugas National Park.

Joseph Terrano of the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center retrieves a sediment sample from under the marsh grass. Scientists installed several Net Sediment Tiles (NST) on the surface of the marsh to measure sediment deposition.

A rock breakwater and salt marsh planting act as the living shoreline structure along the Fog Point shoreline in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.

Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images of fossilized diatom specimens (microfossils). Diatoms are microscopic phytoplankton (algae) that are found in aquatic environments all over the world. Plankton species have preferences for different water and environmental conditions, such as salt or fresh water, attaching to sand or vegetation, or river versus estuary.

Snapshot, or first frame of from a 17-minute video shot on June 20, 2017, in Madeira Beach, Florida.