Images

Photo of researchers positioning giant box core in hoist on deck of the research vessel

Photo of researchers opening hoist, showing giant box core, on deck of the research vessel

Photograph of planktic foraminifers collected from the sediment trap. Magnified 255x.

Bluff erosion during the 2009–10 El Niño undermined the Great Highway guardrail at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California. The shoreline eroded, on average, 55 meters that winter, leading to lane closures on the highway and an emergency \$5-million revetment along the base of this bluff.

Map of the North American - Caribbean tectonic plate boundary. Colors denote depth below sea level and elevation on land. Bold numbers are the years of moderately large (larger than about M7) historical earthquakes written next to their approximate location. Asterisk - Location of the January 12, 2010 earthquake.

Bluff erosion during the 2009–10 El Niño undermined the Great Highway guardrail at the southern end of Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California. The shoreline eroded, on average, 55 meters that winter, leading to lane closures on the highway and an emergency \$5-million revetment along the base of this bluff. Photo taken by Jeff Hansen, USGS, 20 January 2010.

Severe bluff erosion, along the southern end of Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California, including damage to the guard rail of the Great Highway (Calif. Hwy.1). The severe winter erosion led to lane closures of the highway and an emergency, $5 million revetment along the base of this bluff.

Severe coastal bluff erosion, along the southern end of Ocean Beach, San Francisco, California. This storm damage occurred during the 2009-2010 El Niño, which, on average, eroded the shoreline 55 meters that winter.

Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St. Laurent alongside U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy in the Arctic Ocean. The United States and Canada are mapping the Arctic seafloor and gathering data to help define the outer limits of the continental shelf in this region. 

This image displays expected overwash probabilities at Cape Canaveral given a typical nor’easter storm striking the coast.

Rossfelder electric vibracore system deployed from the R/V Gilbert. 

From Vibracore, Radiocarbon, Microfossil, and Grain-Size Data from Apalachicola Bay, Florida, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2009-1031

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.

 U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy breaks ice ahead of the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St-Laurent on September 1, 2009. The two ships were part of a multi-year, multi-agency Arctic survey that will help define the North American continental shelf.

A methane seep in shallow Lake Qalluuraq on the Alaskan North Slope near the Native Village of Atqasuk breaks the water's surface during 2009 geophysical surveys

The USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, located in Santa Cruz, California, owns and operates the research vessel R/V Parke Snavely to collect data and run surveys.

A sub-bottom profile of CHIRP seismic data is draped over swath bathymetry showing the Gulf of Maine pockmark field stratigraphy common to the area. Seafloor mapping combined with sub-bottom geologic profiles shows that Holocene mud ranges in thickness between 5 and 10 meters but pockmarks in Belfast Bay do not penetrate below the geologic unconformity. Th

Aluminum roofs and debris transported behind the village of Tula on the east shore of American Samoa following the Tsunami that hit the island on Sept. 29, 2009. The tsunami runup was 16-26 feet in Tula.

Tsunami sand deposit at Alao, American Samoa following the tsunami on Sept. 29, 2009. Light colored sand deposited during the tsunami overlies darker soil that was there before the tsunami.

Tsunami flow depth indicator at Fagasa, American Samoa following the tsunami that hit the island on Sept. 29, 2009. Vegetation is brown where it was submerged by the tsunami and green above.

Car thrown into building in Pago Pago, American Samoa during the tsunami that struck the island on Sept. 29, 2009.