Images

A loggerhead sea turtle, outfitted with a popoff ADL package (orange item on the turtle’s back), is released by New England Aquarium Biologist Nick Whitney.

Most underwater seismic data is collected from large research vessels; however, the shoreface environment is shallower than areas in which most seismic surveys occur. To get the information we need to assess changes in shoreface geology, we mount our seismic instruments on pontoon floats and deploy the instrument from the beach.

We mount our seismic instrument on pontoon floats with wheels. This setup is deployed from the beach and eventually towed behind our survey vessel.

Topography and bathymetry of southern Cascadia, which includes southern Oregon and northern California (seafloor depths between 200 and 3000 m are shown in the spectrum color scale from red (shallower) to purple (deeper). The land and continental shelf are shown in grayscale slope shading where darker colors represent steeper slopes.

Top row, left to right: Cordell Johnson (left) and Evan Dailey use the USGS R/V Fast Eddy to collect water samples. Cordell Johnson (left) and Jessie Lacy prepare to deploy a tripod holding instruments to measure water level, currents, and suspended sediment.

Three-dimensional model of Chimney Bluffs, New York along Lake Ontario created from low-altitude digital images collected from an unmanned aerial system (UAS).

Two divers work to collect a long core sample from a coral reef in Florida.

Coastal bathymetry, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, mapped using lidar and depicted with false-color (purple is deep, orange is shallow). Land areas are depicted with satellite imagery.

An aerial view, collected from a USGS UAS, of Hawai‛i’s fissure 8 cone, and the start of the 8-mile lava flow to reach the ocean entry point.

This model shows what Dauphin Island, Alabama, may look like under moderate storms but with increasing rates of sea level rise (Passeri and others, 2018).

USGS unmanned aerial system (uas) mapping team on the beach in Dauphin Island, Alabama

Perspective view of coastal bathymetry looking onshore, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, mapped using lidar and depicted with false-color, showing detailed submerged features, including coral reefs.

USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center's research vessel R/V San Lorenzo.

Sun sets on Whiskeytown Lake with PCMSC's vessel San Lorenzo in foreground.

USGS personnel preparing to dive in Yucatan Peninsula.

Collecting water samples in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.

The SWATHplus is a 234 kHz interferometric bathymetric survey tool for surveys in water depths from 1 to 200 meters.

Tulum, Mexico jungle panorama 

Hike through the jungle in Tulum, Mexico

Looking through the windshield of USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center's boat San Lorenzo under pristine field conditions.

SPCMSC Research Microbiologist Christina Kellogg loading coral samples into an automated DNA extraction instrument for processing.