Images

Bathymetry—the measurement of water depth of a body of water (e.g., ocean, sea, river, bay, lake, etc.)

Estimated coastal inundation (blue shading) at Mission Bay in San Diego, California, using the Coastal Storm Modeling System (CoSMoS) developed for ARkStorm. (From USGS Open-File Report 2010-1312.) 

The ARkStorm scenario led by the USGS and hundreds of scientists and experts from many disciplines details impacts of a scientifically plausible storm similar to the Great California Storm of 1862 in the modern day.

Location of earthquakes as a function of depth and size in the northeastern Caribbean.

Comparison of observed near-bed velocities and modeled near-bed velocities using several bottom-roughness formulations. Velocity vectors are overlaid on map of backscatter from the sea floor showing regions with coarse sand (light color) and fine sand (dark colors). White lines are bathymetry contours.

Water molecules (1 red oxygen and 2 white hydrogens) form a pentagonal dodecahedron around a methane molecule (1 gray carbon and 4 green hydrogens). This represents 2 of the 8 parts of the typical Structure I gas hydrate molecule.

Map of the Northeastern Caribbean: topography is in shades of green and bathymetry in shades of blue. Fault traces are shown as lines with the following descriptions: barbed=thrust fault; solid=strike-slip fault with arrows showing relative direction of motion; black and white=normal fault. Faults outlined in red have a potential to generate a large earthquake.

Sediment berm placement in the shoreface of northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana

Simulation results for geomorphic change in Suisun Bay, CA (Ganju and Schoellhamer, 2010)

The Instrumented Pressure Testing Chamber (IPTC). A device for measuring the physical properties of naturally-occurring, hydrate-bearing sediment at nearly in situ pressure conditions

Shaded relief image of Northern Cape Cod Bay, MA

Map of the island of Hispaniola that include the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Fault traces are shown as lines with the following descriptions: barbed=thrust fault; solid=strike-slip fault with arrows showing relative direction of motion; black and white=normal fault.

Sea Level Rise, Subsidence, and Wetland Loss. This video describes causes of wetland loss in the Mississippi River Delta. Rapid land subsidence due to sediment compaction and dewatering increases the rate of submergence in this deltaic system.

Methane seeping on the Virginia margin just shallower than the limit for gas hydrate stability. 

The R/V Rafael performs nearshore geophysical surveys, and includes high resolution sub-bottom profiling, sidescan sonar, and multibeam echosounding in its arsenal of survey capabilities.

Tony Fischbach (USGS) on the beach with a tagged walrus near Point Lay, Alaska, on September 1, 2010. Walruses gathered on Alaskan shores of the Chukchi Sea by the tens of thousands in late August and September 2010 after the last of the sea ice dissipated.

Bleaching colony of massive starlet coral, Siderastrea siderea, Florida Keys. When corals are stressed, the symbiosis between the coral animal and its photosynthetic algal symbionts (zooxanthellae) breaks down and the zooxanthellae are expelled from the coral tissue.

Bleaching colony of elliptical star coral, Dichocoenia stokesii, Florida Keys. When corals are stressed, the symbiosis between the coral animal and its photosynthetic algal symbionts (zooxanthellae) breaks down and the zooxanthellae are expelled from the coral tissue.

Bleaching colony of symmetrical brain coral, Diploria strigosa, Florida Keys. When corals are stressed, the symbiosis between the coral animal and its photosynthetic algal symbionts (zooxanthellae) breaks down and the zooxanthellae are expelled from the coral tissue.

Bleaching colony of lobed star coral, Montastraea annularis, Florida Keys. When corals are stressed, the symbiosis between the coral animal and its photosynthetic algal symbionts (zooxanthellae) breaks down and the zooxanthellae are expelled from the coral tissue.

Bleaching colonies of mountainous star coral, Montastraea faveolata, Florida Keys. When corals are stressed, the symbiosis between the coral animal and its photosynthetic algal symbionts (zooxanthellae) breaks down and the zooxanthellae are expelled from the coral tissue.