Images

USGS pilot Sandy Brosnahan and Senate Pro Tempore Marc Pacheco discuss the use of Umanned Aerial Systems (UASs, also known as drones) to collect data in coastal environments. Photo credit: Dann Blackwood, USGS.

Conceptual diagram showing the structure of the Bayesian network used to assess potential sea-level rise impacts on the coastal landscape.

Problem statement, objectives, and alternative actions defined by Department of Interior  collaborators using structured decision making framework

Illustration of the NIMBBLE (New instrument for making bottom boundary layer evaluations). The NIMBBLE is a low-profile platform with two acoustic Doppler velocimeters and an upward-looking acoustic Doppler profilers.

USGS staff and the ship's crew of the R/V Sharp prepare to deploy a deep-water multibeam echosounder during a mapping program in the mid-Atlantic in 2015.

Engineering technician Tim Elfers of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center navigates a personal watercraft (PWC) through waves offshore of central California. The PWC is equipped with sonar and GPS in order to map the nearshore seafloor.

Science crew aboard R/V Marcus G. Langseth. Ray Sliter (Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center) and Deb Hutchison (Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center) shown at far left.

Personal watercraft were utilized to collect bathymetry in the surf zone and shore face (top left), setup on the beach (top right), instrument configuration (bottom left) and Pelican case hardware configuration (bottom right).

Photo showing the complex geomorphology of the marsh landscape of the Grand Bay National Wildlife Refuge/Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in coastal Alabama and Mississippi. (1) Geology—a tidal creek that at lower sea level than present served as a distributary channel of a river-delta system. (2) Hydrodynamics—wave erosion of the marsh edge.

USGS scientist Lisa Robbins next to the research vessel (R/V) Atlantis, which is owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Picture shows United States Geological Survey scientist Beth Middleton and a lake in China. 

Cliff erosion is a common storm-induced hazard along the West Coast. Two condemned apartment buildings along Esplanade Avenue in Pacifica, California are shown here before their demolition in 2016 and 2017.

Map showing the tracklines and grab sample sites of the 2014 and 2015 geophysical surveys offshore of the Delmarva Peninsula.

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.