Images

USGS research geologist Curt Storlazzi installs an instrument package on the seafloor of Maunalua Bay, Oʻahu. The platform, called a MiniPROBE, hosts six upward-looking acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP), seven conductivity and temperature (CT) sensors, and eight self-logging optical backscatter sensors (SLOBS).

USGS staff collecting a sediment core on Ft. Desoto Beach, Florida using vibracoring equipment. This type of sediment coring uses the vibration of an electric motor to sink an aluminum core barrel into the ground. When the core barrel enters the ground the sediment in the ground fills up the barrel and the crew uses the tripod to pull the core out of the ground.

(Top image) Shaded relief of the new multibeam bathymetry along the Puerto Rico Trench illuminated from the northwest. Thin contours indicate bathymetry at 500-m intervals. (Bottom image) Combined bathymetry map of the multibeam bathymetry data, single-beam bathymetry compilation around Puerto Rico, Lidar data near shore, and topography of Puerto Rico.

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center's Ellyn Montgomery (right) on the helipad of the Canadian Coast Guard Vessel Louis St. Laurent returning from an ice reconnaissance flight as part of a joint study mapping the foot of the continental slope in the Arctic Ocean in 2008

Kristen Hart releasing a satellite-tagged hawksbill sea turtle, August 2008, Dry Tortugas National Park.

The USGS Gas Hydrates Project integrates across USGS mission areas, programs, and regions. The stars indicate the locations of personnel involved in the Gas Hydrates Project. Within the US, much of the research focuses on the Gulf of America and Alaska, which represent marine and permafrost-associated settings for gas hydrates, respectively.

Static stress change models for known or hypothesized faults in the Hispaniola and Puerto Rico subduction segments due to (a) slip on a patch of the Puerto Rico subduction zone, and (b) slip on a patch of the Hispaniola subduction zone. An open arrow denotes slip direction and the patches are marked by dashed rectangles.

Grand Canyon sand was photographed with a hand-held point-and-shoot camera in a waterproof housing.

A pressurized, stable, hydrate-bearing sediment core can be fed through the IPTC body, shown here being used in Singapore to support the Indian National Gas Hydrates Program (NGHP1)

USGS scientists from the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center (PCMSC) in Santa Cruz, California deploy an instrument called the poking eyeball. The system, developed by PCMSC, was designed to take repetitive microscopic images of the seabed from a tripod on the seafloor.

Helicopter on the deck of a Canadian coast guard ice breaker ship in the Arctic Ocean.

Flooded coastal streets, houses, and fields after Hurricane Ike passes through Texas

Protected Species Observer aboard CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent

Helicopter view of Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St. Laurent (top) and U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (bottom) on the Arctic Ocean. This was during a scientific expedition to map the extended continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean.

This is a view from the back of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy as it heads north in the Arctic Ocean.

Helicopter view of Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St. Laurent (top) and U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (bottom) on the Arctic Ocean. This was during a scientific expedition to map the extended continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean.

Launching a sonobuoy receiver off the end of CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent

Sunlight and an offshore shower produced this double rainbow off Florida's east coast.

USGS researcher Benjamin Jones examines a collapsed block of ice-rich permafrost on Barter Island along Alaska's Arctic coast.

Photograph of the seafloor off the California coast showing coarse sand, shells, and a sunflower sea star. It was taken during a "ground-truthing" survey off of Salt Point, California, in support of the California Seafloor Mapping Program.