Images

Emily Sturdivant, with the help of her co-pilot, hits the landing target.

USGS scientific programmer Tarandeep Kalra talks to children about ocean modeling.

USGS research oceanographer Neil Ganju shares a time-lapse video showing salt marsh erosion.

Children measure water salinity to learn about climate warming and how it affects wetlands. 

Time series of the coral reef at Grecian Rocks (Key Largo, FL) illustrating an example of the dramatic decline in live coral on Florida Keys reefs in recent decades. From Shinn and Kuffner (2017).

Close-up views of the toe of the Mud Creek landslide created from air photos taken May 27 (top), June 13 (middle), and June 26 (bottom). Caltrans built roads on top of the slide for assessment and monitoring activities.

Topographic-change image produced by comparing 3D map derived from May 27 air photos with that derived from June 13 air photos. Note that material has eroded from the seaward edge of the toe (yellow and orange tones), and material has built up on beaches to either side of the slide (blue tones).

Pilot Bob Van Wagenen and the Cessna 182R he flies when taking air photos for the USGS Remote Sensing Coastal Change Project.

Gerry Hatcher with the system he designed to record the precise time and geographic location of each air photo Van Wagenen shoots.

Big Sur coast. Red squares mark some of the sites damaged by 2016–17 winter storms, including Mud Creek and Paul’s Slide areas.

Paul’s Slide. Left: Air photo taken May 27, 2017, one of many that Beth Haddon will analyze with structure-from-motion software to measure changes in ground elevation. Right: Caltrans employees and contractors use an excavator and bulldozer to remove Paul’s Slide debris from California State Highway 1.

David Brankovits collecting water samples in Molnar Janos Cave in Budapest, Hungary.

Authigenic carbonate supplies the foundation for deep-sea corals, including colonies of bubblegum corals (Paragorgia) seen here. 
 

Methane-derived authigenic carbonate (MDAC) rocks on the seafloor on the U.S. Atlantic margin

(Top) Methane plumes at the Norfolk Canyon seeps (~1600 meters or 5250 feet) were detected using the EK60 sonar. The water column plumes are shown above the sub-seafloor structure as imaged by high-resolution multichannel seismic data acquired by the USGS and processed by J. Kluesner.

Methane plume imaged by the 30 kHz multibeam system

Map of the general expedition area on the northern U.S. Atlantic Margin between Baltimore Canyon and Cape Hatteras

Underwater photograph showing corals in Tāfeu Cove, National Park of American Samoa, north shore of Tutuila Island, American Samoa.

Photo collage of the shoreline, beaches, and dunes at Fire Island

Aerial map of Sodus Bay, NY study sites. 

The R/V Muddy Waters lends itself to be a versatile survey launch and assistance vessel for the deployment and retrieval of inshore moorings and scientific sensor platforms. The boat can easily be towed to location by a full sized pickup truck and is easily launched and retrieved for fast mobilization after storm events or other rapid response surveys.