Images

These shells are what remains of a Native American shell midden that is located along an actively eroding shoreline in Apalachicola Bay.

The estuarine (backbarrier) shoreline of barrier islands in Gulf of America are complex, ecologically diverse habitats that are under threat due to human development, sea level rise, and storms.

Estuarine shoreline erosion exposes a Native American shell midden beneath the surface of a coastal flatwood forest. Shell middens are the discarded shells and materials from generations of Indigenous people who lived along U.S. coastlines.

Florida archaeologist, Nicole Grinnan, talks about the vulnerability of Native American shell middens to coastal erosion from sea level rise and storms along the Apalachicola Bay.

Two shards of Native American pottery found at shell midden site that is located on an actively eroding shoreline of Apalachicola Bay. The shards show distinctive markings created by paleo Indians thousands of years ago.

The estuarine shoreline of barrier islands along the Gulf of America are vulnerable to shoreline erosion. Structures, such as this rock breakwater, can be used to protect the shoreline from erosional waves.

Satellite-derived shorelines for a barrier island east of Moses Point Fishing Village, Norton Sound, Alaska, from the study CoastSeg: an accessible and extendable hub for satellite-derived-shoreline (SDS) detection and mapping.

Satellite images of barrier island near Moses Point Fishing Village, Norton Sound, Alaska, taken in 1986 and 2023.

Screenshot of CoastSeg interface, from the study CoastSeg: an accessible and extendable hub for satellite-derived-shoreline (SDS) detection and mapping.

Potential coastal change impacts are predicted during a direct landfall of Hurricane Beryl on the Texas coast at 4:00 am, Sunday, July 7, 2024.

USGS Marine Operations Manager Chuck Worley conducting fieldwork to study the geologic framework of Nantucket Sound.

The USGS is assessing the physical condition of coastal wetlands and their response to external forces, using field observations and remote-sensing data. The U.S.

Distinguished Service Award for Research Geologist Curt Storlazzi, presented on May 8, 2024.

Honorees pose with their awards at the 77th DOI Honor Awards Convocation on May 8, 2024.

Distinguished Service Award for USGS Research Geophysicist Carolyn Ruppel, presented on May 8, 2024.

Overview map of the Mississippi River delta showing subaerial birdfoot morphology formed by distributaries.

The United States has ECS in seven offshore areas: the Arctic, Atlantic (east coast), Bering Sea, Pacific (west coast), Mariana Islands, and two areas in the Gulf of America.  The U.S. ECS area is approximately one million square kilometers – an area about twice the size of California.

Sabrina Levinson, a USGS intern on the Coastal Sediment Availability and Flux Project (St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center), pilots a survey waverunner to the shallows of Wallops Island, Virginia.

From June through December, WHCMSC scientists are collecting shoreline and volumetric data at a beach in Sandwich, Massachusetts following a 2023 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beach nourishment. The data will be useful for various purposes. Chris Sherwood is interested in comparing how the different measuring techniques work on different types of vegetation.

Location Map showing the Sur Pockmark Field outlined in green, individual pockmarks are shown as small red dots. This study focuses on the largest section of the pockmark field, from the Lucia Chica Channel down to the San Simeon Channel. AUV surveys are outlined in white and the offshore wind commercial leases are outlined in gray.

A diagram illustrating how the patterns of erosion and deposition associated with three sediment gravity flows could produce the stacked pockmarks and lateral migration observed in AUV-collected Chirp profiles. Long, uneventful episodes of hemipelagic drape (a, d, g, j) are intermittently interrupted by sediment gravity flows that either: 1b.