Images

Conceptual drawing of bottom trawling from a fishing boat, showing a net and metal plate being dragged along the seafloor behind a boat on the surface.

The Fire Island, New York, Offshore experiment details page shows the layout elements uniformly used on all experiment details pages.

Sampling seawater every 4 hours for a period of 72 hours required the team to work during the early hours of the day. Left to right: Chris Gallagher (Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center), Kim Yates (St.

The colored bands on this map of La Jolla, California, illustrate how far cliffs could erode in different sea level rise scenarios, according to CoSMoS forecasts.

Thirty-five years after the data were originally collected as part of a study of glacial geology of the western Gulf of Maine, USGS seismic and sampling data are being used to assist coastal communities in locating offshore sand resources for mitigating coastal erosion.

A 21-cm marsh peat auger sediment core containing a brown peat above a clayey silty gray sediment layer was collected in the field in the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in May, 2016.

USGS scientists aboard a boat measure an estuarine sediment push core collected in an acrylic barrel.

Side view of the oceanographic research vessel (R/V) Meteor floating on the ocean, taken from a distance.

Picture of the back of the (R/V) Meteor as it floats on the ocean, photo by Ferdinand Oberle.

One of the many passing bottom trawlers on the northwest Iberian shelf as seen from the R/V Meteor.

Image of the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, Massachusetts

Ground-Penetrating Radar instruments are towed across land. Data from this instrument show underlying sediment layers within the dune and barrier island, which may reveal patterns of growth and erosion.

A colony of the soft coral known as the "bent sea rod" stands bleached on a reef off of Islamorada, Florida. Hard and soft corals are presently bleaching- losing their symbiotic algae – all over the coral reefs of the Florida Keys due to unusually warm ocean temperatures this summer.

We collect terrestrial (barrier island) and marine (nearshore and estuarine) sediment cores to ground-truth geophysical observations. These cores are used to understand the history of barrier island formation and erosion.

Though often less intense than hurricanes, extratropical storms (e.g., nor’easters) occur more frequently and their impacts can be striking. Here, several years after Hurricane Sandy, winter nor’easters eroded sediments from an artificial dune at Fire Island, NY and moved them onto the beach and shoreface. Such erosion created a steep vertical face, or scarp.

The impacts of extreme storms can be striking. Here, winter nor’easters eroded sediments from an artificial dune at Fire Island, New York and moved them onto the beach and shoreface. Such erosion created a steep vertical face, or scarp. Erosion and overwash are expected to increase on Fire Island with rising sea levels. 

The Florida Keys reefs have been experiencing a severe disease outbreak from 2014 to present called Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD).

The USGS conducted UAS flights to map the Nauset Marsh and Coast Guard Beach areas of Cape Cod National Seashore on Tuesday, March 1, 2016. These are the first authorized UAS flights in the northeast region of the national park system, and were performed under a research permit according to FAA and DOI regulations. 

Physical scientist Jackson Currie steers a personal water craft (PWC) equipped with GPS and echo sounder through the waves of the nearshore area of Zmudowski State Beach in Moss Landing, California.

A tidal marsh at Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, WA.

Seafloor image at a deepwater (~1400 m water depth) seep site on the New England margin. Seafloor conditions here are well inside the pressure-temperature stability field for methane hydrate. Gas being emitted below the rock overhang has formed gas hydrate (the white ice-like material). Distinct bubbles are visible in the foreground. The red laser scale is 10 cm.