Images

Near vertical (top, middle) and low angle oblique (bottom) aerial photographs of Topsail, North Carolina. View looking northwest along the North Carolina shore. Elevated storm-induced water levels overtopped the low dunes here causing the dune to overwash. Sand was transported landward, burying the marsh (green arrow).

The effects of sea-level rise will vary by differences in the geomorphology and ecology of the landscape.  Images show marsh (top left) rocky coast (top right), barrier beach (bottom left), and coastal bluff (bottom right)

Map showing extent and coverage of coastal response type predictions; insets display different prediction types and geospatial variability through time. Predictions of coastal response likelihood for the four prediction time steps at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, VA.

Enlarged details of Survey Area 1 showing new multibeam bathymetry data (rainbow colors) acquired on R/V Solstice near Cross Sound and Glacier Bay National Park, southeastern Alaska. Arrows highlight the surface expression, or trace, of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault.

Profile of newly discovered volcano-like cone in sonar record collected off southern Alaska. The cone’s summit is at about 1,000 meters water depth. Note fluid plume (blue) rising more than 700 meters upward from the summit.

Map of daily-averaged ocean surface current data integrated from multiple IOOS Partner forecast models

A vibracore taken from a marshy area in Anahola Valley, Kaua‛i reveals a sandier mud layer.

Geology and geomorphology offshore of Fort Ross, California, showing location of the San Andreas Fault and slope failures in the fault zone.

The challenging and complex study environment of Molokaʻi’s (Hawaiʻi) fringing reef. Learn more about USGS studies on this island: “Coral Reef Project: Molokaʻi”

Left: USGS research hydrologist Mark Reid (left) and USGS research geologist Kevin Schmidt collect GPS data along the Big Sur coast on September 19, 2007. Photo credit: Maiana Hanshaw, USGS (now with swisstopo).

Pamela Swarzenski from the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center sampling gas released by gas hydrate breakdown during a quantitative degassing aboard the drilling vessel Chikyu during the Indian Government’s National Gas Hydrates Program (NGHP-02) drilling expedition offshore from eastern India.

Junbong Jang of the USGS Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center measures index properties on sediment collected during the Indian Government’s National Gas Hydrates Program (NGHP-02) drilling expedition offshore from eastern India in the summer of 2015.

This USGS vessel acquires single-beam bathymetry in shallow nearshore environments. We acquire repeat bathymetry surveys over multiple years and compute changes in bathymetry, thus allowing us to identify hotspots of erosion and deposition on short timescales.

The research vessel (R/V) Arcticus at its homeport, the Cheboygan Vessel Base in Cheboygan, Michigan.

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center personnel process data in the dry lab on the M/V Scarlett Isabella

Sunset on the Delmarva Peninsula

USGS scientists collect sediment samples in a gas hydrates area during a cruise on the U.S. Atlantic margin in 2015.

Surface sediments will be analyzed for various physical parameters that will be used as initial conditions in hydrodynamic and sediment transport models.

Inundated marsh at Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey.

Near vertical (top, middle) and low angle oblique (bottom) aerial photographs of Oregon Inlet, North Carolina. View looking west along the North Carolina shore. High waves and storm surge from Hurricane Joaquin eroded the beach and inundated the low area in the backshore at Oregon Inlet (A, green box, blue arrows).

Near vertical (top, middle) and low angle oblique (bottom) aerial photographs of Hatteras, North Carolina. View looking north along the North Carolina shore. Waves and surge from Hurricane Joaquin eroded the beach, causing significant shoreline retreat and a narrower beach at the location of the Hurricane Isabel breach in 2003 (green arrow).