Images

Smaller version of Seafloor Character (Sheet 5) from USGS Scientific Investigations Map 3225, California State Waters Map Series—Hueneme Canyon and Vicinity, California, as an example of the different kinds of maps (“sheets”) produced within a coastal map “block”.

Smaller version of Ground-Truth Studies (Sheet 6) from USGS Scientific Investigations Map 3225, California State Waters Map Series—Hueneme Canyon and Vicinity, California, as an example of the different kinds of maps (“sheets”) produced within a coastal map “block”.

An aerial view of Dauphin Island, Alabama, shows a thin strip of road partially covered by sand, with undeveloped beach in the foreground and developed beach in the background.

 The map view in the center of the sheet is similar to the colored shaded-relief bathymetry map of Hueneme Canyon and vicinity (sheet 1 of this report). Numbered arrows show viewing directions of the perspective views on this sheet (figs.

Female walruses and their young must haul out of the water to rest between foraging bouts. Photograph by Sarah Sonsthagen, USGS, taken July 15, 2012, in the Chukchi Sea.

Pacific sand lance captured in a beach seine. Sand lance are a forage fish that underpin Puget Sound food webs and are intimately connected to Puget Sound beaches. The fish spend a portion of their time buried in the sand and eggs are laid on the upper beach, making healthy beaches critical to the success of this species.

Macroalgae, seagrass, and litter in West Falmouth Harbor, MA

USGS scientist Collin Smith, aboard USGS research vessel Dogfish, sets out a sampling net—called a lampara net—to capture nearshore fishes in a subtidal eelgrass bed in Eagle Harbor, Bainbridge Island, Washington.

Partially submerged eelgrass bed at low tide in Fay Bainbridge Park on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Eelgrass is an underwater plant that is a common sight on Puget Sound beaches when the tide is out. Healthy eelgrass indicates that water clarity is high.

On Bainbridge Island, Washington, USGS scientists (left to right) Theresa "Marty" Liedtke, Lisa Gee, Ryan Tomka, and Collin Smith hauling a sampling net—called a beach seine—over an eelgrass (Zostera marina) bed. Surf smelt and sand lance spawn on the upper intertidal areas of beaches in Puget Sound.

Scientists used a core from this Massive Starlet (Siderastrea siderea) coral colony in Dry Tortugas National Park to reconstruct ocean temperatures going back to 1837. Photo: USGS

Oblique onshore view of sea floor characterization map off Puʻukoholā Heiau National Historic Site and Kawaihae Harbor, Hawaiʻi.

 Sunrise with a recently deployed buoy measuring meteorological data off Fire Island, NY in 2012.  The data collected is part of a study of the coastal processes that mobilize and transport sediment in the region

Anti-fouling treatment is applied to a sensor on a platform about to be deployed off Fire Island, NY in 2012.  The data collected is part of a study of the coastal processes that mobilize and transport sediment in the region

PCMSC scientists Amy Foxgrover (left) and Leticia Hallas collect mud from a Smith-McIntyre grab sampler aboard R/V Parke Snavely to study sediment sources and redistribution within San Francisco Bay.

Map of Fire Island, N.Y. study area

Map showing Holocene (modern) sediment thickness in meters overlain on bathymetry. Regional bathymetric contours are in meters. Note the shoreface-attached sand ridges west of Watch Hill.

Cape Hatteras, N.C.

Oceanographic equipment recovery 

Bird's-eye view map of a section of the seafloor off southern California, made with depth data. The map shows a channel wall that has been cut by the San Diego Trough fault and moved about 20 meters. This feature is about 1,000 meters below sea level.

Map C.  Backscatter intensity and sun-illuminated topography.  Blue= "soft" seabed, Green, orange = "hard" seabed