Images

A USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory field team waits on this remote north flank of Mount Hood, as a helicopter delivers supplies and equipment to station BRSP. The station was installed with minimal impact on the environment. A helicopter delivered equipment via external sling load and USGS personnel accessed the site by foot.

Justin Birchler, Physical Scientist with the USGS Coastal Change Hazards team conducts a beach profile survey at our field site on Madeira Beach. During these surveys, Justin wears a backpack with GPS equipment to collect elevation data that will be used to create a topographic map of the beach.

The USGS Coastal Change Hazards team collects data to monitor coastal change – including how storms and waves shape and reshape our beaches. It’s important to keep track of how beaches change over time because they provide habitat for many creatures including birds and sea turtles, and they are beautiful locations where people love to live and vacation.

This photo is the results of processing a time series of images, which are a combination of all image frames collected during a 10 to 17-minute video. These images are incredibly useful for studying coastal change remotely, but the usefulness of the image depends on how they are processed.

We conduct fieldwork in a variety of barrier island settings to understand the relative importance of these factors, including Fire Island, NY; Rockaway, NY; Seven Mile Island, NJ; and Cedar Island, VA.

Throughout the historically active 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season,USGS hydrologists have been working quickly to collect vital flood and streamflow information in impacted areas.

In this NOAA satellite image from Sept. 15, 2020, Hurricane Sally approaches the U.S. Gulf Coast, Hurricane Paulettte creates storm waves far out in the Atlantic, and Tropical Storms Teddy and Vicky lie near the coast of Africa. Two tropical depressions are also developing; one of them is not visible in this image.

On the surface of Kīlauea's new landscape, a story is told

View of the 2018 Kīlauea caldera collapse structures from Kīlauea Overlook within Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. USGS photo by K. Mulliken on Sept. 2, 2020.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) Global Positioning System (GPS) survey near the coast in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park on September 10, 2019 (USGS photo by P. Dotray).

This Coastal Change Storm Hazard Team forecast was made at 4 AM CDT August 26, 2020 and shows forecast beach erosion at the base of the dunes (the strip of colored bars closest to the coast), overwash (middle strip) and inundation (outer strip) from Hurricane Laura.  The model accounts for sandy beaches and barrier islands and does not include marshes,

Radar image of the May 17, 2018 eruption of ash from Halema‘uma‘u Crater. This image is a slice through the cloud at an altitude of 14,000 ft (4 km) above sea level at 4:12 a.m., HST. The colors scale is radar reflectivity, a measure of the size of the particles and their concentration within the ash cloud.

Nā‘ālehu radome, 39 ft (about 12 m) in diameter. The radar dish inside is 28 ft (8.5 m) across. USGS photo by C. Neal on July 27, 2019.

Bathymetric map of offshore Oregon with Stonewall, Heceta, and Siltcoos Banks labeled.

Bathymetric map of offshore Washington reveals seafloor features and submarine canyons.

Topo-bathymetric map of the Cascadia subduction zone. Cascadia megathrust fault (white line); approximate shelf break along 200-m isobath (yellow line); MTJ, Mendocino triple junction.

Schematic cross-section of the accretionary wedge along the Cascadia subduction zone. Modified from Moore and others, 2007.

Index map of U.S. Cascadia margin showing where data have been collected since 2018 as part of the Subduction Zone Marine Geohazards Project. Details of each survey effort are provided on the Cascadia Subduction Zone Marine Geohazards project web site.

Black streak on caldera wall (center) is about 50 m (yards) long, and white steam plume (lower right) rises from northwestern part of Halema‘uma‘u. Photo from Volcano House Hotel on July 4, 2018. The configuration of this area changed considerably after the photo was taken, as collapse continued into early August. USGS photo.

The KWcam webcam at Kīlauea's summit captured a rainbow over the water lake in Halema‘uma‘u this afternoon, as light mist moved across the caldera.

Fisseha Mengistu, USGS hydrologic technician, uses a device that lowers a water sampler into the creek below to collect samples used for water quality testing. Experts will be able to use this data to track how Tropical Storm Isaias impacted water quality in the area. This work was done on Rock Creek in Washington, D.C.