Ocean Discovery Technology

Exploring new places often requires new ways of doing things. New equipment, methods and capabilities are needed to access and study these hard-to-reach these locations, to obtain samples, and to ensure that these samples are preserved so they are useful at land surface. The USGS has worked with many partners to design specific new tools and capabilities so that we can learn as much as we can with each visit to these remote areas. This extensive network has allowed the USGS to tap into innovative technologies, for example, benthic landers for long-term data collection in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico and methane gas bubble collectors in the Pacific Ocean.

Explore the state-of-the-art technologies used by USGS to characterize the seafloor environment and associated biology and hazards.