Images

An adult piping plover. The piping plover is a small migratory shorebird listed as endangered in Canada and the U.S. Great Lakes, and threatened throughout the remainder of its U.S. breeding and winter range. Recent surveys indicate that there are only about 8,000 adults in existence.

In May 2016, Susan Russell-Robinson (Associate Coordinator of the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program, third from right) and Dave Applegate (USGS Associate Director for Natural Hazards, left) celebrated with the team whose website “USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program (CMGP, now called CMHRP

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.

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.

The light blue areas on this map of the Port of Los Angeles could flood during a 100-year storm with no sea level rise, according to CoSMoS forecasts. The port handled about \$270 billion of cargo in 2015.

Several factors affect sea cliff erosion including rain, rock strength, cliff toe height, wave energy, and coastal slope. 

Scientific equipment mounted on a tripod being deployed from the R/V Meteor.

A map of the United States and its territories shows red dots at the locations where field work is planned for the months of June-July 2016.

According to CoSMoS forecasts, large parts of Long Beach, California, could flood during an intense El Niño storm (light blue areas).

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.

• USGS scientists collecting sediment vibracores in Grand Bay estuary from a boat in May 2016.

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.

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. 

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.