Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Salt marsh pond (left) and tidal creek (r), Plum Island, MA

Robert Scharping, a post-doctoral fellow jointly appointed by the USGS and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) measures water chemistry 40’ underwater and underground in Double Keyhole Cave near the coastline of Tampa Bay Florida. Robert is identifying the microbes and chemical conditions supporting chemosynthetic production of organic matter that is expelled

Safety is a top priority. USGS staff recently improved access to field sites at the Herring River estuary within the Cape Cod National Seashore to provide safer paths through a phragmites wetland. Research continues largely through deployment of instruments that can take measurements in water and air continuously, but some measurements do require staff, who are

Instruments continue to collect vital data during workplace closures. Here staff perform maintenance on an eddy flux tower located within a phragmites wetland at the Cape Cod National Seashore. The instruments on this tower measure methane and CO2 fluxes related to plant and soil processes day in and day out for the entire year. This information is critical for

Map of gas hydrate locations, known and inferred.  Browse graphic for ScienceBase data release, Preliminary global database of known and inferred gas hydrate locations. 

Map of the portion of the southwest coast of Puerto Rico affected by an earthquake sequence that began in December 2019, along with portions of the seafloor where faults involved in the earthquake sequence were suspected to exist. (A related image shows indications of seafloor faulting found on a USGS seismic research cruise led by USGS research geophysicist Uri ten Brink

Locations of multichannel seismic reflection profiles (in black), collected during cruise FA2020-14. The profiles are overlain on colored and shaded multibeam bathymetry, Lidar topography (green and white) and near-shore bathymetry (darker blue), and NOAA coastal relief model (light blue and white). Dashed purple lines – hypothesized faults from the distribution of

When wetland plants in the northeast emerged this spring, USGS scientists were working from home and unable to start many planned research activities. However, many instruments were already deployed and continued to collect information critical to USGS research. These instruments still need visits occasionally to download data and make sure there aren’t any problems.

USGS marine technician Wayne Baldwin prepares to deploy the hydrophone array during a seismic research cruise off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico on board the R/V Sultana in March 2020.

USGS marine technicians Alex Nichols (L) and Eric Moore (R) deploy the hydrophone array on a seismic research cruise off the southwest coast of Puerto Rico aboard the R/V Sultana in March 2020.

Alex Nichols, Wayne Baldwin, and Eric Moore deploying a streamer in Puerto Rico.