Images

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

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.

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 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 colony of great star coral, Montastraea cavernosa, 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 great star coral, Montastraea cavernosa, with polyps extended, 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 mustard hill coral, Porites astreoides, both green and brown color morphs, 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 mustard hill coral, Porites astreoides, 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 blushing star coral, Stephanocoenia intersepta/michelinii. 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 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 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.

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 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 blushing star coral, Stephanocoenia intersepta/michelinii.

In 2010, USGS researcher Brian Edwards recovers white chunks of gas hydrate (methane ice) mixed with gray sediment from a metal core sample tube retrieved from the seafloor in the Arctic Ocean at a water depth of approximately 8,000 feet.

Red mangrove trees fringe the shoreline of a bay in Hurricane Hole.

Scientists at the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center study coral reef ecosystems. This coral, Orbicella annularis, was photographed in the Florida Keys during field work on coral disease.