Images

U.S. Geological Survey scientist collecting elevation data on the bluff of Alaska’s north coast.

USGS geologists, from left, Bruce Richmond, Ann Gibbs, Li Erikson, and Curt Storlazzi pose together on a snowy field in Alaska.

Eider duck eggs in a nest on Arey Island, Alaska. 

The large white radar dome is a former Distant Early Warning Line site, which sits atop a permafrost bluff on Barter Island, Alaska.

USGS scientist Li Erikson poses for a picture in Alaska. Learn more about Li's research about climate impacts to Arctic coasts: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/pcmsc/science/climate-impacts-arctic-coasts.

Large waves (6 meters /20 feet high) resuspend terrestrial flood sediment on the coral reefs off Puʻukoholā Heiau National Historic Site and Kawaihae Harbor, Hawaiʻi.

USGS scientists Bruce Jaffe and Bruce Richmond visited Japan following the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. They collected time-sensitive data to help determine the height of tsunami waves at various sites and the distances the waves traveled inland.

Four tan cables, each 6 kilometers long, trail behind R/V Marcus G. Langseth. These cables record seismic sound waves that travel down into the Earth and reflect back from layers beneath the seafloor. The green cables provide the sound.

Damage as seen in Natori, Japan, in May 2011. The March 11, 2011 magnitude 9.1 earthquake off the east coast of Japan caused an epic tsunami. USGS scientist standing near the wrecked boat, and a car on the road, provide scale. Damage to the building indicates a 10-meter flow depth.

Research vessel (R/V) Marcus G. Langseth, operated by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory's Office of Marine Operations, can deploy several kilometers of cable to collect seismic data from beneath the seafloor.

A sailboat gets stuck under the Murray Street bridge over Santa Cruz Harbor in California, after it was washed free of its dock due to the strength of the tsunami wave from Japan. While the tsunami energy that hit the coast of California was relatively low, the wave energy is concentrated in narrow spaces like harbors.

The March 11, 2011, Tohoku tsunami caused significant damage to ships and docks in Crescent City Harbor in California. A number of ships were sunk within the harbor. Because of extensive sedimentation and potential contaminated debris within the harbor, recovery efforts took more than a year to complete.

Unusually high tides, sometimes called "king tides," offer a preview of coastal flooding likely to result from rising sea level. In this photograph, taken during a king tide on February 17, 2011, waves overtop Pier 14 in San Francisco, California.

A rotary sediment trap deployed in a channel on the reef flat off Puʻukoholā Heiau National Historic Site, Hawaiʻi, designed to collect samples of sediment being transported across the reef.

Jenny White (USGS PCMSC) and Lissa MacVean (USGS PCMSC) deploy an instrumented frame in the shallows of San Pablo Bay (northern San Francisco Bay) from R/V Retriever. The instrument is an ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler).

Bathymetry—the measurement of water depth of a body of water (e.g., ocean, sea, river, bay, lake, etc.)

Shaded relief image of Northern Cape Cod Bay, MA

Location of earthquakes as a function of depth and size in the northeastern Caribbean.

Comparison of observed near-bed velocities and modeled near-bed velocities using several bottom-roughness formulations. Velocity vectors are overlaid on map of backscatter from the sea floor showing regions with coarse sand (light color) and fine sand (dark colors). White lines are bathymetry contours.

Simulation results for geomorphic change in Suisun Bay, CA (Ganju and Schoellhamer, 2010)

Water molecules (1 red oxygen and 2 white hydrogens) form a pentagonal dodecahedron around a methane molecule (1 gray carbon and 4 green hydrogens). This represents 2 of the 8 parts of the typical Structure I gas hydrate molecule.