Images

Near vertical (top, middle) and low angle oblique (bottom) aerial photographs of Rodanthe, North Carolina. View looking west along the North Carolina shore. High waves and storm surge from Hurricane Joaquin eroded the beach, exposing the pilings of the homes to wave attack (green and orange arrows).

Near vertical (top, middle) and low angle oblique (bottom) aerial photographs of Salvo, North Carolina. View looking west along the North Carolina shore. Waves and surge from Hurricane Joaquin eroded the beach, causing significant shoreline retreat and a narrower beach, leaving deposits of darker sand at the base of the dune (green arrow).

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).

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).

Radium Springs, Georgia, under normal flow conditions.

Earth Science reminds us that the study of Earth and its biological processes can occur anywhere—whether we realize it or not.

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

Photo of undercut coral taken at Hen and Chickens Reef Sanctuary Preservation Area, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

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. 

An acoustic Doppler current profiler is being used to measure discharge at Manatee Springs, Florida.

Time-averaged image, or “timex,” created by averaging the intensity of light recorded at each spot, or “pixel,” during a video taken at Duck, North Carolina, on September 1, 2015. Blurred white zones show where waves are breaking. Light band paralleling the shore marks an offshore sandbar. Dark bands extending away from the beach indicate rip channels.

Map of monitoring locations on Lake Mattamuskeet

A slice of a piston core containing wood and plant material from Russell Key in Florida Bay, Everglades National Park, April 18, 2014. The large piece of wood is from a red mangrove. Photo: USGS

The transition between a mud flat on the interior of Bob Allen Key (Florida Bay, Everglades National Park) and the mangroves that form the islands’ protective outer berm.  These black mangroves have pneumatophores – parts of the root that function like snorkels, allowing the roots to “breathe” when water overlies the mud flat. Photo: Anna Wachnicka, FIU

A mesmerizing plume creates a paradox of light and dark, brilliant and murky. The dark water of the Suwannee River flows from the Okefenokee Swamp in southern Georgia to the Gulf of America in Florida. The river’s inky color comes from decaying vegetation at the river’s swampy source.

Perspective view of coastal bathymetry looking onshore, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, mapped using lidar and depicted with false-color, showing detailed submerged features, including coral reefs.

Invasive Species biological science technician Michelle Collier holds an invasive black and white Tegu lizard. 

Baseline Coastal Oblique Aerial Photographs Collected from Key Largo, Florida, to the Florida/Georgia Border, September 5-6, 2014

Sediment-laden water from a tributary, where development is probably taking place, entering the clearer Chattahoochee River near Atlanta, Georgia. If preventative measures are not taken on construction sites where runoff flows into a nearby stream or creek, results like this can happen.

USGS scientist collecting water-quality samples from the Enoree River, SC