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Ocean Resources

USGS conducts research studies focused on geologic mapping, sampling and understanding of mineral and energy resources and studies of the geologic setting and processes to inform renewable energy development offshore.  Resources of high interest and value are gas hydrates, renewable kinetic energy in offshore winds, tides and currents, deposits of rare earth elements, and sand and gravel deposits.

Gas Hydrates

Image: Gas Hydrate Recovered from Gulf of Mexico

The USGS Gas Hydrates Project has been making contributions to advance understanding of US and international gas hydrates science for at least three decades and has expertise in all the major geoscience disciplines, as well as in the physics and chemistry of gas hydrates, the geotechnical properties of hydrate-bearing sediments.

Gas Hydrates Project

Stellwagen Bank

Map of project research in United States and Canada

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Geologic Mapping project is part of the combined effort by the U.S. Geological Survey and NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary to map the geologic substrates of Stellwagen Bank and to study the ecology of fish and invertebrate species that inhabit the bank’s sandy substrates off Boston, Massachusetts.

Stellwagen Bank Geologic Mapping

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Rotary side scan images at a grain-size boundary

Coastal Model Applications and Field Measurements

Numerical models are used by scientists, engineers, coastal managers, and the public to understand and predict processes in the coastal ocean. This project supports the development and application of open-source coastal models and has several objectives: 1) improve the code of numerical sediment-transport models by implementing new or improved algorithms; 2) obtain measurements of coastal ocean...
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Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
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Coastal Model Applications and Field Measurements

Numerical models are used by scientists, engineers, coastal managers, and the public to understand and predict processes in the coastal ocean. This project supports the development and application of open-source coastal models and has several objectives: 1) improve the code of numerical sediment-transport models by implementing new or improved algorithms; 2) obtain measurements of coastal ocean...
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regional distribution of the four categories of sea-floor sedimentary environments identified in the Long Island Sound study a

U.S. Geological Survey Studies in Long Island Sound: Geology, Contaminants, and Environmental Issues

This project is complete and the website is archived and no longer updated. Long Island Sound is a major coastal estuary near the New York-Connecticut metropolitan area. More than eight million people live in its watershed. Due to the enormous population, the Sound is used heavily and its sea floor has been impacted by human activities. There are many benthic habitats in the Sound that support...
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Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
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U.S. Geological Survey Studies in Long Island Sound: Geology, Contaminants, and Environmental Issues

This project is complete and the website is archived and no longer updated. Long Island Sound is a major coastal estuary near the New York-Connecticut metropolitan area. More than eight million people live in its watershed. Due to the enormous population, the Sound is used heavily and its sea floor has been impacted by human activities. There are many benthic habitats in the Sound that support...
Learn More