Images

USGS marine technician Jenny McKee prepares the jumbo piston corer for launching off research vessel Bold Horizon off the coast of California and Oregon. The corer will collect sediment samples from the seafloor. Scientists will examine the sediment to determine its age, character, and distribution. This area off the west coast of the U.S.

USGS scientist Janet Watt making a shear vane measurement on a gravity core to understand how the seafloor responds to earthquake shaking.

Dr. Nora Nieminski is a research geologist and Mendenhall Fellow at the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California. She is pictured here, on board Marine Vessel Bold Horizon, with a piston core sample collected from the southern Cascadia subduction zone offshore of northern California/southern Oregon.

USGS scientists Pete Dal Ferro and Jenny McKee securing a recently collected jumbo piston core (JPC) on the back deck of M/V Bold Horizon for preliminary core processing.

Goleta Beach in Santa Barbara experienced an unusual storm and large wave event in the Spring of 2014. Gaviota Pier, seen far off in the background, sustained heavy damage as did the restaurants on the pier and nearby. The USGS conducts seasonal surveys throught the year to see how the beaches are changing through time.

A female Kemp's ridley sea turtle, named Finley, shows off the popoff ADL (orange) and satellite tag (blue).

The USGS California Deepwater Investigations and Groundtruthing, or Cal DIG, science crew aboard research vessel Bold Horizon on San Francisco Bay.

Scientists collected marine vibracores from a research vessel in Mississippi Sound to study shelf geology as part of a collaboration between Mississippi State University and the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.

These “pom-pom” anemones (Liponema sp.) have attached to the rock in a place where there are probably very good currents, which bring small floating particles of food to them. Water depth is 1041 m (3415 ft).

A small juvenile skate (left) and a large rockfish (right) hang out on the murky, silty seafloor with sea stars. Water depth: 856 m (2808 ft).

Photo of Fire Island, New York showing back barrier, dunes, beach, and nearshore environments.

Explore coastal change at Fire Island in this interactive Story Map.

Jumbo piston corer

Fire Island is a barrier island off the coast of Long Island, New York that hosts several protected areas, nesting habitat for shorebirds, and beachgoers looking for a relaxing place for recreation. USGS studies how the island changes over time - in both the past and present - to better understand how the island may evolve in the future. 

A great white heron standing atop the mangrove roots of Boggy Key, in the upper Florida Keys. This heron has a limited range, which includes the Florida Keys and Everglades National Park. It is rarely seen outside of these areas. 

Predicted probabilities of dune erosion (inner band), overwash (middle band), and inundation (outer band) for Hurricane Dorian. Photographs are representative of coastal change observed during past storm events.

Retrieving the MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) MiniROV from the Pacific Ocean offshore of California, on research vessel (R/V) Bold Horizon.

Overview of the high-resolution model grids from: “Dynamically downscaled future wave projections from SWAN model results for the main Hawaiian Islands”

Environmental geoscience fieldwork

Example of a high-oblique photograph taken with an unmanned aerial system (UAS), or drone, of the coastal bluffs of Barter Island on North Slope of Alaska. The photographs from different time periods can be compared, using a technique called structure-from-motion photogrammetry, to measure changes in the coastal bluffs.

Large blocks of coastal bluff tumble down onto the beach of Barter Island, on the North Slope of Alaska.

Along the stretch of coastal bluffs of Barter Island, North Slope of Alaska, a new drainage gully developed between September 2018 and September 2019. USGS scientists have been measuring permafrost degradation, coastal erosion, and flooding hazards on and around Barter Island for the last decade.