Images

Computer images showing the coastal cliff area of Mud Creek on the Big Sur coastline, central California, where on May 20, 2017 a catastrophic landslide destroyed over 400 meters of scenic California State Highway 1. These illustrations show the changes to the digital surface models of Mud Creek during the three primary phases of the landslide: (

 USGS unmanned aerial system (drone) pilot collecting aerial imagery and ground control points for the Coastal Resource Evaulation for Management Applications (CREMA) project on Dauphin Island, Alabama

Aerial photographs were collected from a small, fixed-wing aircraft over the coast of Barter Island, Alaska on July 01 2014, September 07 2014. Precise aircraft position information and structure-from-motion photogrammetric methods were combined to derive a high-resolution orthophotomosaic.

Map showing the surficial geology from this study and Baldwin and others (2016) with equivalent onshore geology (adapted from Stone and DiGiacomo-Cohen, 2009). The areal extents over which offshore subsurface geologic units crop out at the sea floor were interpreted from seismic-reflection data.

Map of locations of instrument moorings where we collected time-series oceanographic data from the Monterey Canyon, offshore of Montery, California, from October 2015 - March 2017

Dann Blackwood and Jon Borden prepare to drop a current meter overboard from the research boat Muddy Waters offshore of Wellfleet, Massachusetts. 

Maps show eelgrass distribution (left) along the tracklines followed by the boat (right).

Animation showing contaminants entering the ocean through the large river discharge following Hurricane Florence (higher concentrations displayed with lighter color).

Amy Gartman waits for an X-ray diffractometer to analyze samples of hydrothermal sulfide minerals. 

Mineral-laden water emerging from a hydrothermal vent on the Niua underwater volcano in the Lau Basin, southwest Pacific Ocean. As the water cools, minerals precipitate to form tower-like “chimneys.” Image taken during 2016 cruise “Virtual Vents.”  

Image showing a collage of examples of multi-channel and single-channel seismic data collected by the USGS, seismic equipment deployed from a research vessel, and seismic equipment on a research vessel.  These data are critical to the CMG Program as they define the geology in marine and coastal environments.

The beach-dependent shorebirds project at the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center models current and future habitat availability for nesting shorebirds in an effort to map current and likely future habitat availability on a range of sites along the U.S. Atlantic coast.

Map of the Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket study sites outlined in red.

Aerial view of a southeast Louisiana coastal marsh.

East end of Fire Island, showing white sandy beaches and marshes, depicted with airborne imagery, and lidar-derived bathymetric features in the estuary behind the island, in the offshore region, and in the channel connecting the estuary to the ocean. 

USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California installed these two video cameras, pointed at the shoreline. The cameras collected imagery every half hour for 10 minutes, during daylight hours. The images are stored in the cloud and are used to study coastal variations through time, like wave, shoreline, and sandbar dynamics.

 R/V Petrel surveying off Beach Haven, NJ during USGS FA 2018-001-FA

Reefs provide protection from waves and wave-driven flooding. A snapshot from the simulation of wave-driven flooding and island overwash for an annual storm at the Republic of the Marshall Islands is shown.

Scientists at the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center use Hydro-MEM, a two-dimensional coastal wetland model that integrates an Advanced Circulation hydrodynamic model with a Marsh Equilibrium Model to project marsh response to sea-level rise.

Screenshot of Our Coast, Our Future (OCOF) interactive map view of Stinson Beach, California, showing extent of flooding predicted if subjected to a sea-level rise of 100 centimeters (about 40 inches) and elevated water levels caused by a 100-year storm.

In an effort spanning the Natural Hazards and Ecosystems Mission Areas, pilots from the Saint Petersburg and Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Centers collect imagery data using Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) while personnel from the Wetlands and Aquatic Research Center (WARC) conduct ground-based site surveys of Pelican Island, Alabama.