Images

Seafloor trace of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault (from top left to bottom right) offsets the edge of the Yakobi Sea Valley off southeast Alaska. This 700-mile-long fault has generated large earthquakes in the past. Future shocks—and tsunamis—could threaten coastal communities in the U.S. and Canada. (Color-coded depths, in meters, were mapped in 2015.)

USGS geophysicist Jared Kluesner points at a three-dimensional cross-section of seismic data about 40 kilometers across and several kilometers deep located in the Santa Barbara Channel. This imaging deep below the seafloor allows scientists to visualize and map faults better.

Jared Kluesner displays a 3D view of seismic data collected off Santa Barbara. This visualization helps him analyze the Earth’s layers from the seafloor (rainbow-colored surface) to several kilometers below (slices extending down from the colored surface).

Example of a high-resolution seismic-reflection profile collected by the USGS offshore of Point Sal. The profile shows a cross-section of the earth's crust down to about 240 meters. The dashed red lines show the Hosgri Fault Zone, part of a strike-slip fault system that extends for about 400 kilometers along the California coast from Point Arguello to Bolinas.

Example of a deep-penetration multichannel seismic-reflection profile collected offshore of San Mateo County, from the USGS National Archive of Marine Seismic Surveys (NAMSS). The profile shows a cross-section of the earth's crust from the surface down to a depth of about 3 kilometers.

A bright orange Brisingid starfish is seen in the center of the image. The background is a thicket of live (white) and dead (brown) Lophelia coral. Several squat lobsters (Eumunida picta) can be seen in the coral, as well as a blue encrusting sponge and an urchin (foreground, lower left).

Eric Moore, Wayne Baldwin, and Tommy O’Brien are deploying multichannel seismic streamer onboard R/V Pelican during a 2013 seismic cruise in the Gulf of Mexico as part of the gas hydrates program. 

Image of ripples in sand, next to a rocky surface on the seafloor 2.5 km (1.5 miles) offshore San Mateo County, California at a depth of 24.6 meters (81 feet). The two red dots in the image (from lasers mounted on the camera and used as reference points) are 15 cm (6 inches) apart.

Methane gas bubbles rise from the seafloor—this type of activity, originally noticed by NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer in 2012 on a multibeam sonar survey, is what led scientists to the area. Image courtesy of Deepwater Canyons 2013 – Pathways to the Abyss expedition, NOAA-OER/BOEM/USGS.

A lithodid crab seen on a bed of deep sea mussels living near a gas seep 1,600 meters below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. Images courtesy Deepwater Canyons 2013 - Pathways to the Abyss expedition, NOAA-OER/BOEM/USGS.

Images of the remotely operated vehicle Jason2 sampling a sea urchin in a deep sea mussel community found near a gas seep on the U.S. outer continental shelf. Images courtesy Deepwater Canyons 2013 - Pathways to the Abyss expedition, NOAA-OER/BOEM/USGS.

Close-up image of the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa, with polyps extended. The coral polyps eat by grabbing tiny suspended particulates (visible against the dark water background). The bright orange claws of a squat lobster (Eumunida picta) can be seen peeking out from behind the coral branches.

Close-up of a squat lobster, Eumunida picta, in a thicket of Lophelia pertusa coral.

Fish like this Atlantic Roughy (Hoplostethus occidentalis) congregate near deep-sea corals (background is Lophelia pertusa coral).

A fish (Gephyroberyx darwinii) peeks through a forest of soft corals and anemones at about 300 meters in depth in the Gulf of Mexico.

Live Lophelia pertusa is white because the calcium carbonate skeleton shows through the nonpigmented coral tissue. Dead coral is soon covered in a brown biofilm. The red-orange squat lobster (Eumunida picta) in the center of the photo is prepared to catch its dinner.

A cleaner shrimp (Plesionika sp.) with vivid blue eyes rests in a coral thicket next to a red soft coral (Anthomastus agassizii).

A conger eel (Conger oceanicus) cruises through a thicket of Lophelia pertusa coral.

A black-bellied rosefish (Helicolenus dactylopterus) peaks out of the Lophelia coral. Behind the fish, a squat lobster (Eumunida picta) hangs upside down from a coral branch.

Gas hydrate at the seafloor on the U.S. Atlantic margin. The icy deposit formed as gas bubbles emitted from the seafloor transformed into methane hydrate beneath the overhanging rock.

The streamer is flaked out on the deck with a make shift workbench for tools.  The technical staff (Geological Survey of Canada) are sharing a lighter moment during trouble shooting and repair aboard CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent.