Images

High-resolution (10-meter per pixel) digital elevation model (DEM) of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, using both bathymetry and topography data relative to current modern datum of North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD88). This DEM is the result of collaborative efforts of the U.S.

University of Washington's research vessel R/V Barnes is loaded with the USGS multichannel seismic system components GeoEel, Chirp, and boom plates.

Exposed bedrock on the beach during very low (negative) tide at Isla Vista, California.

Installing large boulders as rip rap to armor the shore against further erosion at Goleta Beach in Southern California. The tide is very low (negative).

Exposed bedrock on the beach, below the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Beach loss and armoring at Goleta Beach, very low (negative) tide

Bedrock exposed at low tide along the beach at Isla Vista, California

Exposed bedrock on the beach during very low (negative) tide at Isla Vista, California

USGS oceanographer Dan Hoover uses a GPS-equipped backpack to measure sand elevations near the mouth of the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz, California, January 12, 2017. Surveys like this make long-term studies of coastal change possible.

USGS scientists readying a sonar-equipped boat to map the ocean bottom near Santa Cruz, Calif.

A sonar-equipped personal watercraft mapping the bathymetry underwater near Santa Cruz, Calif.

USGS scientist Daniel Hoover mapping the beach at Santa Cruz with a GPS-equipped backpack unit.

 USGS scientists setting up a lidar scanner on the pier to map the beach near Capitola, California.

A USGS researcher gathers elevation data from an eroding coastal bluff in Arctic Alaska

Seafloor offshore of Point Estero (PE) showing east (EH) and west (WH) strands of the Hosgri fault zone. Arrow points to a seafloor slope (a 12,000 year old shoreline) that has been offset by the east Hosgri strand, indicating a slip rate of about 2.6 millimeters per year.

Photograph from pole-mounted camera, looking west across the Skagit River delta and one of several large sediment fans that are moving 1-2 meters per day across the tidal flats. These fans threaten to bury the last intact stands of eelgrass in Skagit Bay, an important rearing habitat for juvenile salmon, crab, and other marine wildlife.

Map view. Colored shaded-relief bathymetry map of Monterey Canyon and Vicinity map area, generated from multibeam-echosounder and bathymetric-sidescan data. Colors show depth: reds and oranges indicate shallower areas; purples, deeper areas. Illumination azimuth is 300°, from 45° above horizon.

Sandy beach and cliffs at Moss Landing, California

Large storm waves crashing on the rocks near Santa Cruz, California

Mount Crillon in the backdrop during a multibeam bathymetry survey of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault, offshore southeastern Alaska.

USGS research geologist Jon Warrick explains how his team applied structure-from-motion analysis to photos from the California Coastal Records Project to measure coastal change. Jon Warrick explains a “difference map” constructed from structure-in-motion data. Red areas indicate loss of material (erosion); blue areas show addition of material (deposition).