Videos

Bathymetry is the science of measuring the depth of water in ocean, river and lake environments. Learn how USGS measures bathymetry in this video by the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center, originally created for the 2021 virtual St. Petersburg Science Festival.

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Join the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center as they uncover the secrets of the sediment on barrier islands in Pinellas County, Florida. This video was originally created for use at the 2021 virtual St. Petersburg Science Festival.

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Join the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center as they uncover the secrets of the sediment on barrier islands in Pinellas County, Florida. This video was originally created for use at the 2021 virtual St. Petersburg Science Festival.

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Time-lapse of USGS researchers raising a mechanical mast with a high-resolution camera mounted on top, which was deployed atop a dune in the U.S.

Take a virtual tour of the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center to learn about the science we do and how we do it!

Watch the non-audio described version.

Take a virtual tour of the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center to learn about the science we do and how we do it!

Listen to the audio-described version.

The USGS Coastal Change Hazards team works to identify and address the Nation’s coastal change hazards problems.  By integrating research, technical capabilities and applications, and stakeholder engagement and communications, the Coastal Change Hazards team develops robust and accessible coastal change assessments, forecasts, and tools that help improve the lives,

The USGS Coastal Change Hazards team works to identify and address the Nation’s coastal change hazards problems.  By integrating research, technical capabilities and applications, and stakeholder engagement and communications, the Coastal Change Hazards team develops robust and accessible coastal change assessments, forecasts, and tools that help improve the lives,

We are the USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program. Our mission is to provide science for sustainable stewardship of Earth’s precious resources.

We are the USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program. Our mission is to provide science for sustainable stewardship of Earth’s precious resources.

Join the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center on an adventure in the field! Our team of scientists will take you on board a personal watercraft near downtown St. Pete to show you how they collect bathymetry data – which is the depth of the ocean floor (in this case, Tampa Bay). This video was created as part of the 2020 St.

The importance of our Nation’s coasts is indisputable. They provide homes for people and animals alike, and support the Nation’s economy. The USGS Coastal Change Hazards team studies how our shorelines change over time, especially following extreme events such as storms and hurricanes.

The importance of our Nation’s coasts is indisputable. They provide homes for people and animals alike, and support the Nation’s economy. The USGS Coastal Change Hazards team studies how our shorelines change over time, especially following extreme events such as storms and hurricanes.

Tall and contiguous coastal dunes can substantially mitigate storm surge and flooding near our coasts. Understanding the position and height of dunes, as well as how these features change over time, is critical to the USGS mission of predicting impacts to coastal infrastructure and habitat caused by storms and hurricanes.

This video demonstrates a simulation of how storms can impact sandy coastlines through processes such as erosion. This demonstration is conducted at outreach events by scientists at the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center. The activity can also be re-created at home or in the classroom.

This time-lapse video shows lateral erosion of a salt marsh in the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, part of an embayment near the city of Pascagoula, Mississippi, on the US Gulf coast. Wave action over the course of 6.5 months led to about 1.5 meters of erosion.

This short video demonstrates wave runup and setup on a beach on a stormy day during Tropical Storm Colin. The camera, positioned in the surf zone, shows a multistory building in the background, while waves run up the shallow beach and wash sand from the eroded dune edge (scarp).

The Hawaiian Islands’ beautiful ocean and beaches attract more than 8.5 million tourists each year. The USGS aims to help Hawaii preserve its underwater natural resources by tracing how oceanography may influence coral disease outbreaks.

Geologists rely on information from deep beneath the Earth's surface to reconstruct the past. As sediments accumulate over time, they create records geologists use to understand Earth history and to predict future processes and trends. The most common way to get this information is to drill a hole in the Earth where sediments have been deposited over time.

The Arctic Ocean is one of the most unique bodies of water on the planet. It houses large charismatic predators like polar bears, whales, and seals; critical species like shell fish and phytoplankton; and an array of organisms found nowhere else on Earth. The Arctic Ocean is also the most inaccessible and least explored ocean.