Images

Our coasts, the most familiar part of the ocean are the gateway to the larger deeper ocean world. USGS studies processes and hazards in the coastal zone and how they affect people, wildlife, and ecosystems.

Amy Gartman, USGS Research Oceanographer and chief scientist for the Escanaba Trough expedition, examines a mineral sample with a hand lens aboard R/V Thomas G. Thompson.

Tom Lorensen, USGS Physical Scientist, uses an ultraviolet light to examine mineral samples aboard R/V Thomas G. Thompson.

The Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center Sea Floor Mapping Group is mapping the seafloor and subseafloor of Nantucket Sound as part of a long-term collaboration with the State of Massachusetts. This is an image of a seismic reflection profile showing layers of sediment deposited during a glacial period.

Two hands are better than one! The versatile, ambidextrous ROV (remotely operated vehicle) Jason collects two mineral samples from the seafloor at Escanaba Trough. Jason's sample collection tubes are visible off to the left.

Iron-oxyhydroxide gossan, formed by weathering of massive sulfide. Dominantly porous orange goethite, with a compact darker to metallic layer of dense goethite.

Partially weathered hydrothermal chimney, composed mostly of barite (BaSO₄). The white material is the outer weathered rind, where the disseminated sulfide minerals have been leached out by oxidation, leaving an orange iron oxide stain.

The Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center Sea Floor Mapping Group is mapping the seafloor and subseafloor of Nantucket Sound as part of a long-term collaboration with the State of Massachusetts. While a crew is at sea collecting new data, geographer Brian Andrews is processing yesterday's seafloor mapping data.

Close-up of fine-grained pyrrhotite-rich massive sulfide. The deep-sea sample was collected from the Escanaba Trough, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

The Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center Sea Floor Mapping Group mapping the seafloor and subseafloor of Nantucket Sound as part of a long-term collaboration with the State of Massachusetts. Eric Moore and Alex Nichols deploy the chirp subbottom profiler. The chirp is the device that allows us to see underneath the seafloor.

Close up of fine-grained seafloor massive sulfide containing the primary minerals pyrrhotite, sphalerite, and barite. Weathering has produced secondary minerals, including iron oxide and possibly jarosite.

Close up of fine-grained seafloor massive sulfide under an ultraviolet light source, revealing the minerals that fluoresce under the light.

Close up of fine-grained massive sulfide containing the primary minerals pyrrhotite, sphalerite, and barite. Weathering has produced secondary minerals, including iron oxide and possibly jarosite. Second image shows the same rock under an ultraviolet light source, revealing the minerals that fluoresce under the light.

Close up of fine-grained massive sulfide containing the primary minerals pyrrhotite, sphalerite, and barite. Weathering has produced secondary minerals, including iron oxide and possibly jarosite. Shiny image shows the same rock under an ultraviolet light source, revealing the minerals that fluoresce under the light.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute's remotely operated vehicle Jason gathers a mineral sample from the seafloor at Escanaba Trough.

The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting research to guide the restoration and recovery of threatened corals in Dry Tortugas National Park and throughout the western Atlantic. Shown here are two colonies of the threatened elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, with a colony of staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis, in the center.

The U.S.

The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting research to guide the restoration and recovery of threatened corals in Dry Tortugas National Park and throughout the western Atlantic. Shown here is a colony of the threatened elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, that has grown over the sides of a cinderblock experimental platform.

A vibracore being deployed by USGS staff from the FSU R/V Apalachee for the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). The objective of this field effort was to establish a baseline environmental characterization for a test bed to predict mobility and burial of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in response to waves and currents. 

The USGS Processes Impacting Seafloor Change and Ecosystem Services (PISCES) project team meeting at the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center in May 2022 to coordinate Structure-from-motion (SfM) Quantitative Underwater Imaging Device with 5 cameras (SQUID-5) and diver-based SfM data acquisition and processing for field work.

Caitlin Reynolds retrieving one of the sediment traps used by USGS to study sediment flux in the Gulf of America on board the Research Vessel (R/V) Weatherbird II (Florida Institute of Oceanography).