Images

Image shows equipment for analysis of targeted and non-targeted organic contaminants at the OGRL located at the KS WSC. 

Stacked bar chart of 1990-2019 agriculture, domestic, and industry freshwater withdrawals in the U.S., estimated by the World Bank. In all years, industry withdraws the most freshwater, followed by agriculture and domestic. From 2006 to 2010, industrial water dropped 5,000 cubic kilometers, then remained low.

Animation of five satellite images of the Tanana River in Alaska. The imagery is colored in shades of blue to show the degree of confidence that water is present. Two scatter plots show positive pairwise relationships between satellite river elevation and satellite river width and satellite streamflow.

Six lollipop charts highlight deviations in maximum percent ice cover on the five Great Lakes (Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Lake Ontario) from 1973-2023. The difference in lake ice cover is shown for each lake and across the entire system compared to the 50-year mean (1973-2023).

A tile map of the U.S. with lollipop charts for each state that show differences in forest area magnitude, in squared kilometers, from the 35-year mean (1985-2020) across the contiguous United States (CONUS). Positive differences are shown in forest green lollipops and negative differences are shown in burnt orange lollipops.

The Big Melt has begun; 2023 spring flows into Lake Tahoe compared to the historical record. Nine timeseries plots show daily streamflow (cubic feet per second) from March 2023 to present, highlighted in green, compared to historical record, shown in grey that date back to 1975.

Dr. Joshua Joseph, Jr. is the Deputy Associate Director for the USGS Water Resources Mission Area. He shares full responsibility with the Associate Director for the development, management, and coordination of program activities and the strategic direction of the WMA. 

Sediment deposits at the discharge outlet of the Coca Codo Sinclair hydropower facility on the Rio Coca, Ecuador. (Molly Wood, USGS)

Molly Wood at a viewpoint on the Rio Coca, Ecuador, where substantial erosion and landslides have occurred. 

Regressive erosion on the Rio Coca upstream of the former San Rafael waterfall site, Ecuador. (Molly Wood, USGS)

Streambank erosion on the Rio Coca after a waterfall collapse, Ecuador. (Molly Wood, USGS)

Rapid erosion of hillsides along the Rio Coca in Ecuador after collapse of a lava dam, April, 2023. (Molly Wood, USGS)

Sediment and flow monitoring station on the Rio Quijos, Rio Coca watershed, Ecuador. Rio Quijos joins Rio Salado to form Rio Coca upstream of a hydropower facility. The station is jointly operated by the Ecuador National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology and the Electric Corporation of Ecuador (CELEC). (Molly Wood, USGS)

Circular calendar charts showing the projected effects of climate change on the onset and end of spawning for the American Shad and the Striped Bass in the Hudson River Estuary, during two modeling periods: 1950 to 2012 and 2012 to 2099.

Circular calendar charts showing the projected effects of climate change on the onset and end of spawning for the American Shad and the Striped Bass in the Hudson River Estuary, during two modeling periods: 1950 to 2012 and 2012 to 2099.

Upstream diversion dam at Coca Codo Sinclair hydropower facility on the Rio Coca, Ecuador. (Molly Wood, USGS)

A Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) compressor station in Hinkley, California. Although hexavalent chromium occurs naturally in groundwater in the Mojave Desert, concentrations increased in Hinkley Valley beginning in 1952 when the PG&E discharged it into unlined ponds. From there, hexavalent chromium entered the aquifer.

The loss of the North American grassland biome. Once spanning more than 2 million square kilometers, we have lost over half of the world’s most imperiled ecosystem: the temperate grasslands. A map of North America shows the loss of the grassland biome from Canada to Mexico, largely contained within the central plains of North America.

Hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen under specific circumstances, occurs naturally in groundwater in the Mojave Desert. However, concentrations of hexavalent chromium increased in California’s Hinkley Valley beginning in 1952 when the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) discharged it into unlined ponds.

A tile map of the U.S. with alluvial charts for each state and the nation that show changes in the total volume of water use from 1985-2015 across eight categories (thermoelectric, irrigation, public supply, industrial, aquaculture, mining, domestic, and livestock).

Step chart timeseries of U.S. electricity generation (in gigawatt hours) across five classes of renewable energy, from 2000 to 2020. As of 2020, these classes ranked (from high to low): wind, hydropower, solar, bioenergy, and geothermal. From 2000 to 2020, wind power generation steadily grew from roughly 10,000 to over 325,000 gigawatt hours.