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An earthquake along a subduction zone happens when the leading edge of the overriding plate breaks free and springs seaward, raising the sea floor and the water above it. This uplift starts a tsunami. Meanwhile, the bulge behind the leading edge collapses, thinning the plate and lowering coastal areas.

U.S. Geological Survey streamflow-gaging station 08028500 Sabine River near Bon Wier, Texas, photograph looking from left bank adjacent to U.S. Highway 190 bridge, May 30, 1999.

SIR 2009–5174

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists conducted a unique study, which demonstrated that the ecology of natural groundwater bacteria changed after exposure of the bacteria to the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole (SMX).

Grant Glacier - 1998

Large-scale poster describing USGS work.

The USGS mapped western San Francisco Bay using sonar, in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and C&C Technologies. Some parts of the Bay floor are so shallow that a large tanker or container ship could run aground at low tide and create a massive oil spill.

One of 1,695 repeat photographs taken to provide context for the classification of the Central Mojave Desert into various vegetation classes.

USGS geochemist Bill Evans measures the temperature of a superheated (hotter than the boiling point) fumarole in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Red-faced warblers are one of the species affected by climate change in the form of reduced snowpack in the Arizona Mountains, according to a USGS Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit study.

Florida's Atlantic coastal dune with typical vegetation such as seaoats and Spanish bayonets. Trails to the beach cut through the dune. Photograph taken circa 1998.

Several red mangrove "islands" in an intracoastal waterway. Photograph taken circa 1998.

Cecioides consobrinus shell viewed with a scanning electron microscope with aperture facing up.

Geologic map of Mauna Kea with generalized surface distribution of Hamakua Volcanics. Laupahoehoe Volcanics are inferred to overlie a vast area of Hamakua Volcanics on the upper flanks and summit.

Geologic map of Mauna Kea, showing generalized distribution of lava flows, cinder cones, and glacial deposits of the Laupahoehoe Volcanics.

Photograph showing the scar left by a landslide on a hillside above the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway in Everett, Washington.

Photograph showing a house that was damaged by a 1997 landslide along Perkins Lane in Seattle, Washington.

Rock and ice debris avalanche (October 20, 1997) on the east side of Mount Adams.

A tumulus in the Coso Volcanic Field, California. This lava was probably more viscous than the lava found in the Hawaii tumuli.

Juvenile white sturgeons on measuring board.

An a'a' channel near the Royal Gardens subdivision on Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii. The flows in the background are from the 1980s. Note that the flow level is below the levees and the pahoehoe overflows emplaced on top of the a'a'. 

Detail of levee on an active channelized aa flow. Note the pahoehoe overflows in the levees and the level of the active flow below the tops of the levees. This lower flow level is not allowed in the commonly used "Bingham" model of lava flows.