Images

USGS oceanographer Andrew Stevens, of the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California, sits on an all-terrain vehicle equipped with a precision GPS and other instruments. The GPS collects position data continuously, about 2 points per second, while an operator like Andrew drives the ATV over a beach.

Science and ship crew on board NOAA research vessel Rainier prepare the Chirp 512i off south-central California.

The USGS Coastal Change Hazards Storm Team has forecast coast-wide levels of beach erosion, inundation and overwash due to Hurricane Florence's expected path and landgfall.

The Coastal Change Hazards Storm Team has forecast changing water levels at specific locations over time.

USGS oceanographer Shawn Harrison stands on the coastal bluff of Barter Island, Alaska at sunset. Shawn and his fellow researchers are studying how the highly erosive bluff changes under the varied conditions experienced by this stretch of coastline.

Kīlauea summit photo taken on September 6, 2018.

USGS personnel on the deck of the R/V Hugh R.

Photo shows a dead, relict reef framework built by the elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata in Buck Island Reef National Monument, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.

Photograph of the entrance to Grand Traverse Bay Harbor, located 8 kilometers downdrift of the spoils pile. Migration of the dark-colored stamp sands (moving from left to right) has buried the original beach, overtopped the wall, and partially blocked the channel.

Photograph showing a high scarp cut into the large pile of stamp sands at the town of Gay, Michigan. Nearly a century of erosion by waves and currents has transported millions of cubic yards of mine tailings along the coast and spread them across the adjacent lake floor.

An egret walks in the shallow surf of an undeveloped beach on Dauphin Island, Alabama, with buildings viewed in the background from a different area on the island.

Photograph of the R/V Rafael alongside dock near the survey site on Lake Superior.

A reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary with little living coral and extensive bioerosion. Photo taken under research permit number FKNMS-2016-085-A1. Credit: USGS, Ilsa Kuffner.

Atlantic spotted dolphins photographed near the R/V Hugh R. Sharp on August 27, 2018 by the protected species visual observers.

Cover of the 2018 publication, "California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment: Statewide Summary Report."

Unalakleet village on the low-lying barrier spit at the inlet of the Unalakleet River and Norton Sound, Alaska.

Research Oceanographer Lauren Toth and student volunteer Liz Whitcher drill a coral-reef core from a reef off Key West, Florida, in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Photo taken under research permit FKNMS-2015-058. Credit: Anastasios Stathakopoulos, USGS.

Jenny McKee and Peter Dal Farro of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center swing a pair of seismic sources, also called air guns, and the gun hanger, out over the water to deploy them during the 2018 MATRIX cruise. Scripps Institution of Oceanography's seismic streamer is coiled on the blue winch in the foreground.

 Jenny White McKee and Pete Dal Ferro of the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center retrieve two airguns during the 2018 MATRIX cruise aboard the R/V Hugh R. Sharp.  The seismic streamer is visible on the winch in the foreground.

Four diesel-powered compressors chained to the deck of the R/V Hugh R. Sharp provided the air to power the seismic sources during the MATRIX cruise. 

USGS drone demonstration at the 2018 Woods Hole, MA Science Stroll