Images

Wetlands play a key role in the coastal carbon cycle, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis and releasing carbon dioxide and methane during respiration. The amount of methane emission is critical to determining how a wetland interacts with the global climate system.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

Collapsed arch in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico.

Iguana in the marine science laboratory at the university of Puerto Rico Isla Magueyes in La Parguera, Puerto Rico.

Regional map of Puerto Rico. Less than two months after the largest earthquake in the seismic sequence, the USGS Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center organized a rapid response seismic survey.

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.

USGS research geologist Jason Chaytor (L) and marine technicians Alex Nichols (center) and Eric Moore (R) deploy the “sparker” sound source 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.

Map of seismic activity in Southwestern Puerto Rico.

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.

From left to right – Uri ten Brink, Eric Moore, Wayne Baldwin, Alex Nichols, Jason Chaytor, and Captain Orlando Espinoza. Less than two months after the largest earthquake in the seismic sequence, the USGS Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center organized a rapid response seismic survey.

Permanently flooded shore in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico.

R/V Sultana. Less than two months after the largest earthquake in the seismic sequence, the USGS Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center organized a rapid response seismic survey.

View inside the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center Sediment Analysis Laboratory showing the laboratory computer workstation, precision balances, and interior of the oven and sieving room.

View inside the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center Sediment Analysis Laboratory showing the Beckman Coulter Multisizer 3 and Horiba LA-960 laser diffraction unit.

Participants of the Coastal Change Hazards State of Our Nation’s Coast stakeholder engagement workshop at the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Reserve in Falmouth, MA. Participants are pictured here talking in small groups.