Images

View of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk amusement park in Santa Cruz, California. Photo was taken from the bluff on East Cliff Drive, east of the San Lorenzo River mouth. Sand on the beach gets eroded, redistributed, and deposited due to the dynamic conditions brought about by storms and changing river flow.

In this shaded relief and bathymetric map of Ni‘ihau and Kaua‘i, colors indicate water depth, from shallow (orange and yellow) to deep (purple), with shades of gray indicating island areas above sea level. From: U.S.

Preview image for video: Around 2:17 p.m., HST, on January 2, a rockfall from the east rim of the Overlook vent within Halema‘uma‘u Crater at the summit of Kīlauea impacted the lava lake, generating a small explosive event captured by HVO webcams. shows the rockfall as seen from HVO and Jaggar Museum.

Fragments of molten lava were thrown on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u Crater during the January 2 explosive event. This close-up shows the dust and small rock particles that adhered to the surface of these fragments as they were thrown upward through the ashy plume.

On January 4, a rockfall within the Overlook vent at the summit of Kīlauea generated another small explosive event at 3:18 a.m., HST. In this image, captured by a USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory webcam, the dusty gas plume can be seen rising from the vent after rocks impacted the lava lake.

In this photo of Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake, the light-colored rock in the vent wall to the left of the spattering lava shows were a rockfall occurred on January 2. The shadow of the gas plume appears as a brown streak perpendicular to the dark-colored lava on the floor of Halema‘uma‘u Crater.

Preview image for video: shows the same rockfall as captured by the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory webcam perched on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u Crater. Note the fragments of molten lava flying toward the camera—just one of the hazards that led to the closure of this area.

On remote Barter Island, Alaska, Bruce Richmond (right) and Cordell Johnson drill into 500-foot-thick permafrost using a handheld drill with a 2-inch drill bit—a challenging task! It can take 3 hours to drill nearly 20 feet down.

Volcanic eruptions happen in the State of California about as frequently as the largest earthquakes on the San Andreas Fault Zone. At least 10 eruptions have taken place in California in the past 1,000 years—most recently at Lassen Peak in Lassen Volcanic National Park (1914 to 1917) in the northern part of the State—and future volcanic eruptions are inevitable.

 Scanning electron microscope image of gas hydrate crystals in a sediment sample. The scale is 50 micrometers (µm) or approximately 0.002 inches

Storm induced erosion of marsh shorelines can provide significant quantities of sediment to the bay altering the deposition patterns.

Measuring seagrass biomass in Chincoteague Bay, Maryland to constrain numerical models.

Flood tidal shoal at Barnegat Inlet, New Jersey (courtesy USGS EROS NAIP orthophotography)

Box-cores provide a relatively undistributed look into the recent past to help better understand the processes contributing to sediment deposition and erosion.

Flood maps from Our Coast, Our Future showing Stinson Beach today (slide 1); with a 50-centimeter sea-level rise (slide 2); and when an annual storm strikes in addition to 50-centimeter sea-level rise (slide 3). Green patches are low-lying areas prone to flooding.

Near vertical (top, middle) and low angle oblique (bottom) aerial photographs of Rodanthe, North Carolina. View looking west along the North Carolina shore. High waves and storm surge from Hurricane Joaquin eroded the beach, exposing the pilings of the homes to wave attack (green and orange arrows).

Near vertical (top, middle) and low angle oblique (bottom) aerial photographs of Salvo, North Carolina. View looking west along the North Carolina shore. Waves and surge from Hurricane Joaquin eroded the beach, causing significant shoreline retreat and a narrower beach, leaving deposits of darker sand at the base of the dune (green arrow).

Conceptual diagram showing the structure of the Bayesian network used to assess potential sea-level rise impacts on the coastal landscape.

Problem statement, objectives, and alternative actions defined by Department of Interior  collaborators using structured decision making framework

Yellowstone subsurface cross-section schematic oriented SW-NE, depicts rise of magma beneath mantle plus heating and movement of mantle and crustal material. Credit Univ Utah. Click to enlarge.

The November 25, 2015, breakout that began as a rupture from the tube supplying the June 27th lava flow advanced slowly to the northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō (background) and reached the forest in mid-December, but still poses no immediate threat to Puna communities. USGS image.