Images

Graphic demonstrating how CoSMoS uses global climate models to forecast local coastal hazards.

Oceanographer Andy O’Neill spent 11 years providing oceanographic and meteorological analyses for the U.S. Navy in Japan before joining the USGS in 2012. Now she fine-tunes CoSMoS coastal hazard forecasts.

Mount Crillon in the backdrop during a multibeam bathymetry survey of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault, offshore southeastern Alaska.

Woods Hole Core Lab Manager, Brian Buczkowski,  giving a tour of the lab to local teachers participating in a professional development workshop

At Fire Island, estuarine, wetland, coastal, and oceanic processes interact, affecting natural and human communities. The CMHRP has been conducting scientific investigations at Fire Island in order to protect coastal infrastructure.

Participants at the September 2016 Argus Workshop at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility in Duck, North Carolina, including many of the scientists named in this article (labeled). Rob Holman (Oregon State University) took the photo with a drone.

Brain coral spawning coral larvae. The larvae will settle on other surfaces and grow into new coral in a process called recruitment.

Products of Structure-from-Motion applied to data collected by UAS in Black Beach, Falmouth, MA

Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey Study SIte

Map showing the surficial geology of Vineyard and western Nantucket Sounds with equivalent onshore geology (adapted from Stone and DiGiacomo-Cohen, 2009). The areal extents over which offshore subsurface geologic units crop out at the sea floor were interpreted from seismic-reflection data.

Jen Suttles,Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, collects water samples from a salt marsh tidal creek (East Falmouth, MA) for laboratory analysis of total organic carbon. These samples will be compared to data recorded by instrumentation deployed in an adjacent tidal creek as part of research efforts to quantify carbon dynamics in coastal ecosystems

Map of seabed geology and sun-illuminated topography, Stellwagen Bank Blue and purple = boulder ridges. Redlines = leading edges of sand sheets

Sand ridge morphology and bedform migration patterns offshore of Assateague Island

Current CoSMoS coastal hazard forecasts cover southern California, from Santa Barbara County in the north to San Diego County in the south.

USGS scientist Sara Zeigler records habitat characteristics in iPlover at an ‘exclosed’ nest. On some beaches, managers erect netting around nests to protect eggs/chicks and adults from predators, allowing movement of chicks and parents to and from the nest but excluding predators

Groundwater data were collected in the spring and fall of 2008 from three sites representing different geological settings and biogeochemical conditions within the surficial glacial aquifer of Long Island, NY.

Browse graphic of Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge study area

Sandy Brosnahan performing first solo flight as a USGS certified drone pilot.  There are multiple exciting applications for drone imagery including erosion studies and physical changes to coastal ecosystems over time. 

Seafloor offshore of Point Estero (PE) showing east (EH) and west (WH) strands of the Hosgri fault zone. Arrow points to a seafloor slope (a 12,000 year old shoreline) that has been offset by the east Hosgri strand, indicating a slip rate of about 2.6 millimeters per year.

Large submarine slides off southern California (outlined in small white dots). Low-resolution bathymetry shown in light grey (approximately 100 meters/pixel). High-resolution bathymetry shown in darker grey (less than 20 meters/pixel).

Researchers survey Elwha River elevation and depths. Clockwise from upper left: setting up a traditional survey instrument above the river; measuring river depths from a kayak with sonar and GPS; walking the beach with GPS backpacks; and determining offshore depths using a personal watercraft with GPS and sonar.