Images

Beach loss and armoring at Goleta Beach, very low (negative) tide

Exposed bedrock on the beach, below the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Bedrock exposed at low tide along the beach at Isla Vista, California

A net sedimentation tile (NST) is used by scientists to measure surface sediment deposition in wetlands over short time scales. Scientists installed several NSTs on the surface of the marsh to measure sediment deposition. The samples are retrieved and measured in the lab to identify short-term sediment deposition rates on the marsh surface.

USGS oceanographer Dan Hoover uses a GPS-equipped backpack to measure sand elevations near the mouth of the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz, California, January 12, 2017. Surveys like this make long-term studies of coastal change possible.

An atmospheric river, or narrow band of moisture moving from the tropics to the higher latitudes, hit California in early January and brought the first heavy rains of 2017. While these storms help a drought-stricken state, the onslaught of rain triggers floods and mudslides, and fills rising rivers with sediment and debris.

USGS scientists readying a sonar-equipped boat to map the ocean bottom near Santa Cruz, Calif.

USGS scientist Daniel Hoover mapping the beach at Santa Cruz with a GPS-equipped backpack unit.

A sonar-equipped personal watercraft mapping the bathymetry underwater near Santa Cruz, Calif.

 USGS scientists setting up a lidar scanner on the pier to map the beach near Capitola, California.

Brain coral spawning coral larvae. The larvae will settle on other surfaces and grow into new coral in a process called recruitment.

Products of Structure-from-Motion applied to data collected by UAS in Black Beach, Falmouth, MA

Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey Study SIte

Map showing the surficial geology of Vineyard and western Nantucket Sounds 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.

Jen Suttles,Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, collects water samples from a salt marsh tidal creek (East Falmouth, MA) for laboratory analysis of total organic carbon. These samples will be compared to data recorded by instrumentation deployed in an adjacent tidal creek as part of research efforts to quantify carbon dynamics in coastal ecosystems

Map of seabed geology and sun-illuminated topography, Stellwagen Bank Blue and purple = boulder ridges. Redlines = leading edges of sand sheets

Sand ridge morphology and bedform migration patterns offshore of Assateague Island

Coastal and Marine Geology Program web team members receive their awards at the USGS Awards Ceremony on May 3, 2016. From left to right: USGS Director Suzette Kimball, who presented the awards; Jolene Gittens; Greg Miller; Kerry Rae, Chief of Staff for Jennifer Gimbel, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, U.S. Dept.

Collecting a coral core in the Gulf of Chiriqui, Panama, by forcing a 20-foot aluminum tube into the reef. This core retrieved about 6,000 years of reef history.

A healthy thicket of elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata in Buck Island Reef National Monument, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. This species is critical for shoreline protection because it is the only species that builds reef-crest habitat in the Caribbean region.

USGS research geologist Jon Warrick explains how his team applied structure-from-motion analysis to photos from the California Coastal Records Project to measure coastal change. Jon Warrick explains a “difference map” constructed from structure-in-motion data. Red areas indicate loss of material (erosion); blue areas show addition of material (deposition).