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In the winter of 2015, the public noticed thousands of dead seabirds washing ashore across the western coast of the United States and Canada. The USGS linked this massive seabird die-off to the North Pacific Marine Heatwave. A marine heatwave occurs when sea surface temperatures are above normal for an extended period of time.

2021 was an interesting year for deformation at both Kīlauea and Mauna Loa volcanoes. At Kīlauea, 2021 provided a glimpse of what the future might hold as the system recovers from the large collapses that accompanied the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption.

Mauna Loa is an active volcano, though it has been quiet for almost 30 years. An eruption is not imminent, but patterns of ground deformation on Mauna Loa over the past year may indicate that new, previously unobserved processes may have occurred. Mauna Loa lava flows have the capacity to disrupt lives and commerce throughout the Island of Hawai‘i.

It seems the effects of climate change were all too clear in 2021. Yet, we know more change is expected. When trying to adapt to a changing climate, with all the inherent uncertainties about how the future may play out, resource managers often turn to scenario planning as a tool.

The tallest volcano on the Galapagos Islands began erupting on January 6. The eruption sent lava flows down the mountainside and ash skyward. Like the Hawaiian Islands, the Galapagos are volcanic islands formed over an active hotspot. Wolf Volcano last erupted in May and June of 2015.

Communities on the Island of Hawai‘i continue to recover from Kīlauea’s 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption and summit collapse as does the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO). During the events of 2018, HVO instruments were lost, monitoring infrastructure was impacted, and HVO staff had to evacuate the observatory, which was damaged beyond repair.

Incredibly high sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission rates were measured during the lower East Rift Zone of Kīlauea in 2018—nearly 200,000 tonnes per day. Emissions dropped to only about 30 tonnes per day during Kīlauea’s non-eruptive quiet period from 2018–2020.

This video highlights the Geomorphology team at the MD-DE-DC Water Science Center, and features interviews with several USGS scientists.

They discuss what skills they possess, what technologies they use, and how their research helps advance the mission of the USGS.

Recent activity has altered the landscape in northwestern China. Alluvial Fan, from the second Earth As Art collection, was acquired in 2002 by the ASTER sensor on NASA’s Terra satellite. It’s truly a fan favorite, often named one of the top images of the entire collection.

This is an animation showing the changing conditions of USGS streamgages from October 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021. The river conditions shown range from the driest condition seen at a gage (red open circles) to the wettest (blue closed circles). A purple outer ring around a gage indicates it is flooding.

This is an animation showing the changing conditions of USGS streamgages from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021. The river conditions shown range from the driest condition seen at a gage (red open circles) to the wettest (blue closed circles). A purple outer ring around a gage indicates it is flooding.

Before we get into what happened during the month of December 2021, let’s review what happened at Yellowstone over the past year.

Eruptive activity resumed today in Halema‘uma‘u crater, at the summit of Kīlauea volcano, after a brief pause of several days. This video shows spattering and lava effusion from the west vent, which has built a steep spatter cone. 

Following the lower East Rift Zone eruption and summit collapse of Kīlauea in 2018, the volcano remained quiet for more than two years. Lava returned to Kīlauea in December 2020, boiling off the water lake that had been present at the base of Halema‘uma‘u crater, and starting a five-month long eruption in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.

The last year has been a busy one for seismologists at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Earthquake activity at Kīlauea summit has varied over the past year, with upticks in a variety of seismic signals providing clues to the start of the December 2020 and September 2021 Kīlauea summit eruptions.

Geophysical equipment loop for electromagnetic survey on ground prior to liftoff by helicopter. In January 2021 a helicopter carried an airborne electromagnetic induction sensor over parts of northeastern Wisconsin as part of a USGS study to map the aquifers in the region.

Structure-from-motion techniques use photographs taken from different angles to reconstruct the three-dimensional shape of an object. At Kīlauea, this technique has been used to rapidly generate maps of eruption activity from aerial imagery, allowing scientists to quantify changes over time such as the volume of lava erupted and surface area covered by lava.