Images

Here are shown a series of photographs of a rice coral (Montipora capitata) shaded with light filters during a natural “coral bleaching” event observed during anomalously high ocean temperatures in Autumn of 2004 on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi.

Zoomed in aerial photograph of a home on the beach near Stuart, Florida, severely damaged by Hurricane Jeanne in September 2004.

The Great Barrier Reef arches over 2000 kilometers along the northeast coast of Australia. The white calcium carbonate that coats the coral reflects light, making the water above the reef appear bright blue from space.

Storage vans, referred to as the "Freezer Farm" sit outside the Woods Hole Science Center 

Airborne lidar is a surveying method that measures distance to a target from a survey plane by illuminating that target with a pulsed laser light, and measuring the reflected pulses with a sensor. Differences in laser return times and wavelengths can then be used to make digital 3D-representations of the target.

Swath bathymetric map of the Cape Fear submarine slide, the largest slide on the US Atlantic coast. Data were collected on the R/V Atlantis in 2003.

Airborne lidar is a surveying method that measures distance to a target from a survey plane by illuminating that target with a pulsed laser light, and measuring the reflected pulses with a sensor. Differences in laser return times and wavelengths can then be used to make digital 3D-representations of the target.

Lab setup aboard R/V Gyre in the Gulf of America from the 2003 field season. Computers, recorders, and other electronic gear are securely mounted in racks or on tabletops and shelving for stability in rolling seas and for access.

Large-scale poster describing USGS work.

Aerial photograph of Kaanapali Beach, west Maui, Hawaii.

Map showing the paths that ocean current-following surface drifters deployed in coral larval slicks off west Maui traveled in 24 hours following their release during a coral spawning event. Such data suggests that the coral reefs off west-central Maui may provide coral larvae to the reefs off northeastern Lānaʻi.

Underwater photograph of larvae being released into the water column from reef-building coral spawning off Maui the night of June 30, 2003. The white larvae are about 0.5 to 1.5 mm across.

Coral atolls develop from reefs fringing volcanic islands. As first hypothesized by Charles Darwin, and confirmed by ocean drilling done by British scientists a century ago, reefs fringing volcanic islands build vertically to sea level, forming steep-walled barrier reefs.

Gas hydrate recovered in shallow layers just below the seafloor during piston coring in the Mississippi Canyon in the northern Gulf of America in 2002.

Overall perspective view of the Los Angeles Margin and Basin looking northeast. The distance across the bottom of the image is about 100 kilometers with a vertical exaggeration of 6 times. The margin is bisected by a series of large underwater canyons, channels, and gullies.

Photograph of a coastal cliff where a large landslide occurred between 2002 and 2010. This photo, taken in 2002, shows the cliff before the landslide.

Large-scale poster describing USGS work.

The USGS mapped Crater Lake, Oregon using sonar, in cooperation with the National Park Service, the University of New Hampshire, and C&C Technologies.

Morphology and color-shaded bathymetry of the northeastern Caribbean region. Digital data courtesy of Troy Holcombe and Lisa Taylor, National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, Colorado.

A bed of manganese nodules from deep offshore of the Cook Islands; photo sourced from Hein et al., 2015, taken during a Japanese research cruise in the year 2000. Nodules range from about 2 to 10 centimeters across.

A bed of manganese nodules from deep offshore of the Cook Islands. Each color bar in the staff represents 10 centimeters.

This image was acquired on December 26, 2000, by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus instrument aboard NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite.