Images

Worldwide distribution of observed and inferred gas hydrates in marine and permafrost-associated settings that have been the subject of drilling programs. The color coding refers to the primary sediment type in each location and therefore designates the likely type of gas hydrate reservoir at each site.

Deployment period storm analysis. (A) significant wave height (red line) and wind speed and direction (arrows). Shading represents storm type (blue = cold front, red = warm front, yellow = low-pressure). (B) Vertical profiles of suspended-sediment concentration. (C) Cumulative along-shore and cross-shore sediment flux.

Map of Long Bay, S.C. study area

Study area map of coastal South Carolina

USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center field crew showing off the new magnetometer, named Magnetron, on fantail of Research Vessel (R/V) Parke Snavely.

Stellwagen Bank project research areas in the United States and Canada

Satellite photo of Guam from NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite's Advanced Land Imager.

USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center's research vessel R/V Parke Sanvely motors through Alviso Slough in the southern end of San Francisco Bay. Scientists were collecting depth data to make a detailed bathymetric map of the Bay.

Steaming to the deployment site south of Martha's Vineyard, MA in 2011. The platform shown was specially adapted so the arm cycles up and down through the Benthic Boubdary Layer while deployed on the seafloor.  For more information see https://soundwaves.usgs.gov/2011/11/fieldwork2.html.

Ice conditions in the Arctic from CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent.

USGS scientists test the moving arm bottom platform at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) dock.  While it was deployed, the system moved sensors through the bottom boundary layer and transmitted data in real time to shore via WHOI's Martha's Vineyard coastal observatory.

USGS scientists assembling a novel profiling arm to measure suspended sediment in the benthic boundary layer. This large seafloor platform was later deployed for several months off Martha's Vineyard, MA as part of the Optics Acoustics and Stress In Situ (OASIS) Project in 2011.

Post Hurricane Irene: Beach state after Hurricane Irene showing the exposure of a groin from loss of beach elevation (foreground) and beach and dune scarping due to elevated water levels (background).

During Hurricane Irene, sand eroded from the beach and dunes was transported landward, burying a walkway near the Fire Island lighthouse.

U.S. Geological Survey geographer Nadine Golden (center, kneeling) works with USGS marine operations staffer Cordell Johnson (right) and a deckhand (left) to deploy a camera sled from the research vessel Coral Sea. The sled is towed close to the seafloor and collects real-time photographs and videos.

Oblique aerial photograph near Rodanthe, North Carolina, looking south along the coast on August 30, 2011, three days after landfall of Hurricane Irene. 

Deploying the airgun array from CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent. USCGC Healy can be seen in the background.

The airgun sled is painted orange and suspended from the A-frame.  The three airguns are suspended beneath the sled. The multichannel digital streamer (yellow cable going into the water from the sled) is towed from the the weighted sled to keep it under the ice. This photo shows the number of crew required to safely deploy the airgun sled.

CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent following the path created by USCGC Healy

A breach in the coastline of Rodanthe, North Carolina, caused by Hurricane Irene in 2011. Repeated storm impacts, combined with sea level rise, make the development and improvement of models that help forecast coastal change very important to planners working to build more resilient communities

Personal watercraft fitted with sonar and GPS were among the tools used by USGS scientists to map the bottom of shallow coastal waters near the mouth of the Elwha River. This shot was taken August 25, 2011, during a survey conducted just a few weeks before dam removal began.