Images

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.

Bathymetry data of Columbia River mouth, derived from an interferometric swath bathymetry systems survey in 2013. A) Swath map of data; B-E) sample detail pull-outs

Waves breaking over offshore reefs on Kwajalein Atoll, in the Marshall Islands, where reefs are protecting developed land from flooding.

USGS geophysicist Jared Kluesner points at a three-dimensional cross-section of seismic data about 40 kilometers across and several kilometers deep located in the Santa Barbara Channel. This imaging deep below the seafloor allows scientists to visualize and map faults better.

Jared Kluesner displays a 3D view of seismic data collected off Santa Barbara. This visualization helps him analyze the Earth’s layers from the seafloor (rainbow-colored surface) to several kilometers below (slices extending down from the colored surface).

View of Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve in Hawaii. Hanauma is located along the southeast coast of the Island of Oʻahu. It is known for its abundance of marine life and is a popular snorkeling location.

Aerial image showing beach and offshore reef

Aerial image showing beach and offshore reef

Two colonies of the mustard hill coral, Porites astreoides, one apparently healthy (left) and one visibly bleached (right) during a coral-bleaching event at Hen and Chickens Sanctuary Preservation Area, Plantation Key, FL, USA. When ocean temperatures were unusually warm in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in October 2015, coral ble

Shows the location of mapped area (highlighted in yellow) in the Stellwagen Bank region off Boston, Massachusetts.

Sun-illuminated imagery and boulder ridges of Stellwagen Bank, near Boston, MA.

Seafloor ruggedness map of Stellwagen Bank basin, taken in 2015 near Boston, Massachusetts.

USGS scientist David Ponce measuring gravity using a gravimeter along the Hayward-Rodgers Creek fault zone just north of San Pablo Bay, California.

USGS scientists Kevin Denton (left), Katherine “Kyeti” Morgan, and David Ponce set up a magnetic base station during fieldwork along the Hayward-Rodgers Creek fault zone in wheat fields north of San Pablo Bay.

The oxygen-regulated benthic flux chamber measures fluxes of water and chemical species across the sediment water interface. It is shown here deployed in the subtidal discharge zone in Indian River Bay, DE, USA

Here are shown two mustard hill corals (Porites astreoides) growing side-by-side, one (right) that has succumbed to heat stress and lost its symbiotic algae, and one (left) that has not.

A diver peeks from behind a badly bleached coral in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in October 2015. Coral bleaching events caused by abnormally warm ocean temperatures continue to regularly claim the lives of coral populations around the globe.