Images

Amy Gartman, USGS Research Oceanographer and chief scientist for the Escanaba Trough expedition, examines a mineral sample with a hand lens aboard R/V Thomas G. Thompson.

Tom Lorensen, USGS Physical Scientist, uses an ultraviolet light to examine mineral samples aboard R/V Thomas G. Thompson.

Iron-oxyhydroxide gossan, formed by weathering of massive sulfide. Dominantly porous orange goethite, with a compact darker to metallic layer of dense goethite.

Close-up of fine-grained pyrrhotite-rich massive sulfide. The deep-sea sample was collected from the Escanaba Trough, in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

Partially weathered hydrothermal chimney, composed mostly of barite (BaSO₄). The white material is the outer weathered rind, where the disseminated sulfide minerals have been leached out by oxidation, leaving an orange iron oxide stain.

Two hands are better than one! The versatile, ambidextrous ROV (remotely operated vehicle) Jason collects two mineral samples from the seafloor at Escanaba Trough. Jason's sample collection tubes are visible off to the left.

Close up of fine-grained seafloor massive sulfide containing the primary minerals pyrrhotite, sphalerite, and barite. Weathering has produced secondary minerals, including iron oxide and possibly jarosite.

Close up of fine-grained seafloor massive sulfide under an ultraviolet light source, revealing the minerals that fluoresce under the light.

Close up of fine-grained massive sulfide containing the primary minerals pyrrhotite, sphalerite, and barite. Weathering has produced secondary minerals, including iron oxide and possibly jarosite. Shiny image shows the same rock under an ultraviolet light source, revealing the minerals that fluoresce under the light.

Close up of fine-grained massive sulfide containing the primary minerals pyrrhotite, sphalerite, and barite. Weathering has produced secondary minerals, including iron oxide and possibly jarosite. Second image shows the same rock under an ultraviolet light source, revealing the minerals that fluoresce under the light.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute's remotely operated vehicle Jason gathers a mineral sample from the seafloor at Escanaba Trough.

Screenshot of an idealized animation of tsunamis produced by the 15 January 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano in the Kingdom of Tonga. View to the north-northeast. The fastest water wave to radiate away from the eruption is being pushed by an atmospheric wave triggered by the explosion.

Deep water camera and light installed in the head weight of the upgraded USGS jumbo piston corer. In the background, USGS Marine Engineering Technician Daniel Powers is preparing the core liner for sediment collection. 

Pete Dal Ferro, USGS Marine Engineering Technician and lead fabricator on the JPC upgrade, monitors the testing of the coring system on R/V Hugh R. Sharp in March 2022.

Upgraded USGS jumbo piston corer being readied for deployment off the research vessel Hugh R. Sharp in April 2022.

Bathymetry data from various sources, including newly released 2018 and 2019 multibeam data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), were combined to create a composite 30-m resolution multibeam bathymetry surface of the southern Cascadia Margin offshore of Oregon and northern California.

Bathymetric map of offshore Washington reveals seafloor features and submarine canyons.

ROV SuBastian’s manipulator jaw stabilizes GEOMAR’s glowing bubble box that is capturing high-resolution images of methane bubbles rising from the seafloor.

This coral garden was discovered in the Stetson-Miami Deepwater HAPC during the 2019 Southeastern U.S. Deep-sea Exploration in an area that may mark the eastern extent of the Million Mounds region.

USGS scientist Janet Watt making a shear vane measurement on a gravity core to understand how the seafloor responds to earthquake shaking.

USGS scientist Pat Hart processing MCS data onboard the R/V Rachel Carson.