Images

Photograph of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia.

Photograph of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia.

Photograph of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia.

Photograph of the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia several years after the 2011 fire. USGS scientists recently collected peat and lake core samples from the swamp to help reconstruct natural environmental conditions over the past 12,000 years.

A USGS researcher conducts fieldwork on Buttonwood Key, an island in Florida Bay, to determine the impacts of Hurricane Irma. The storm left thick deposits of mud on the island, which are being measured, sampled and photographed.  Many of the islands in Florida Bay have open mudflats in the center, surrounded by mangroves on the perimeter. 

In Photo: The red circle indicates the same position as shown in the April 2014 photo.  The mangroves have lost all their leaves and the berm is significantly thinner following the storm. 

The Northeast Bedrock Mapping Project consists of scientists conducting geologic mapping and scientific research of complexly deformed crystalline igneous and metamorphic rocks in the Northeastern United States. Current mapping activities are focused in New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and New York.

USGS scientist Jessica Rodysill studies a sediment core to help understand past environmental conditions. This core was collected from Maryland. Credit: Elizabeth Goldbaum, USGS. 

Cores were collected from various areas of thawing permafrost-peatlands in Alaska. Permafrost thaw results in ground subsidence and inundation that kills black spruce and other understory plants living on the permafrost plateau. 

A technician sits at a computer while running a sediment core through the Geotek.

A team of scientists prepare to collect cores from the Nomini Bay, VA.

Tom Sheehan, a lab technician at the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, swirls a sample in a watch glass to assist in separating pollen from heavier mineral material.

USGS scientists recently collected peat and lake core samples from the swamp to help reconstruct natural, environmental conditions over the past 12,000 years. 

Centuries of ditching, draining and harvesting resources have greatly altered the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia.

USGS Research Geologist Jessica Rodysill and USGS-NAGT Student Intern Kristen Steele inspect a sediment core from Bearsden Pond near the Fredericks Hall fault, one of three subsidiary faults that broke in response to slip along the main Quail fault on 23 August 2011 during the M5.8 earthquake.  This research is a collaborative project between the USGS Land Use

Botryoidal growth of manganese oxide minerals cryptomelane/hollandite from a breccia in Virginia. Grey banding reflects variation in the Ba (bright) and K (dark) in the botryoidal mass. NCGMP: Appalachian Basin Project.

In July of 2016, a team from the Climate and Land Use Research and Development Program took a trip to South Carolina to study outcrops of the “Canepatch” and “Socastee” formations along the Intra-Coastal Waterway, near Myrtle Beach. The age of these fossiliferous marine units has been controversial for several decades.

In July of 2016, a team from the Climate and Land Use Research and Development Program took a trip to South Carolina to study outcrops of the “Canepatch” and “Socastee” formations along the Intra-Coastal Waterway, near Myrtle Beach. The age of these fossiliferous marine units has been controversial for several decades.

In July of 2016, a team from the Climate and Land Use Research and Development Program took a trip to South Carolina to study outcrops of the “Canepatch” and “Socastee” formations along the Intra-Coastal Waterway, near Myrtle Beach. The age of these fossiliferous marine units has been controversial for several decades.

Scientists sit on the ground with core samples

This gear, known as a Russian corer, is commonly used to extract sediment cores from field sites.