Images

A wolf spider protects a spherical egg sac.

Narrow Gauge spring, Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park.  Vent area is between the two trees on top of the travertine deposits.  Terraced pools form due to deposition of travertine from the fluids as they cool and degas carbon dioxide.

Birds found in and around the Salton Sea, California.

Birds found in and around the Salton Sea, California.

Birds found in and around the Salton Sea, California.

Birds found in and around the Salton Sea, California.

Birds found in and around the Salton Sea, California.

Sea Otter at Knight Island (Prince William Sound) Alaska

When lava from the Pu'u 'Ō'ō-Kupaianaha eruption, active since 1983, meets the ocean, large littoral explosions can result.

Incandescent arcs trace the path of lava fragments cast out during a tephra-jet explosion at the Waikupanaha ocean entry in 2008. This is a relatively small explosion, reaching a few tens of meters (yards) height, while one earlier in the day was nearly 70 meters (230 ft) in height.

Palmer's chipmunk (Tamias palmeri).

Crater Lake Caldera with Wizard Island cinder cone and lava flows, some of the youngest features in the caldera as seen from Merriam Point. Viewed toward the south. Oregon

The early morning helicopter overflight of the lower East Rift Zone shows lava continuing to enter the sea at Ahalanui. The southern margin of the flow remains about a quarter mile from the boat ramp at Isaac Hale Park (jetty visible in the center left of the photo). View to the northeast.

USGS scientist John Shelton using high-tech hydroacoustic equipment to measure the depth and velocity of the Congo River.

USGS scientist Brent Knights conducting fish sampling on the Upper Mississippi River. Biological production represents the total amount of living material (biomass) that was produced during a defined period of time.

The longear sunfish is a freshwater fish in the sunfish family. An increase in sunfish in southeastern streams, intentionally stocked or unintentionally transplanted, has caused the composition of fish species among streams in the Southeast to become more similar. Such homogenization of species is an emerging and pervasive threat to biodiversity.

White pelicans on the James River, North Dakota, summer 2008.

Photograph of the Donghekou Landslide, triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan, China Earthquake. This landslide had 3 sources areas: the mountain slope at the top right of the photograph a second area primarily resulting in a rockslide that occurred to the left of the scientists, and one to the right, across the river (not shown in picture).

Photograph of the Donghekou Landslide, triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan, China Earthquake. This landslide had 3 sources areas: the mountain slope at the top right of the photograph a second area primarily resulting in a rockslide that occurred to the left of the scientists, and one to the right, across the river (not shown in picture).

Common in Louisiana, although amphibian declines are a global problem. Are we next?

Train tracks and overwater structures along Browns Bay in Edmonds, Washington often occur on developed shorelines of Puget Sound. The built environment can interrupt the flow of sediment from back-beach bluffs to the intertidal zone, attenuate and redirect alongshore currents, and reduce upper beach habitat.