Images

USGS Arroyo Hondo near San Jose CA (11173200) streamgaging station in January 2023 (watershed burned by SCU Lightning Complex in August 2020) (photo by Emily Zierdt-Smith, USGS)

A map of the contiguous U.S. using a snowflake hex pattern to show snow persistence over a 20-year period. Snow persistence is measured as the snow cover index, or the average fraction of time snow was on the ground from Jan 1 to. July 3 from 2001-2020.

Sharon Mulready, USGS Hydrologic Technician, recording the high-water mark on gage 11161000 San Lorenzo River Santa Cruz. The stream is filled with a tremendous amount of sediment moved by the storm on December 31st, 2022.

High water in the Walnut Creek watershed in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2022. Flooding can impact nearby infrastructure, including homes, businesses, roads and trails. Credit: Kristina Hopkins, USGS.

This USGS map shows the number of PFAS detected in tap water samples from select sites across the nation. The findings are based on a USGS study of samples taken between 2016 and 2021 from private and public supplies at 716 locations. The map does not represent the only locations in the U.S. with PFAS.  

A staff profile photo of Nathaniel (Nate) Booth. Nate is Senior Advisor, Office of the Chief Operating Officer for the USGS Water Resources Mission Area. 

A photo of a USGS streamgage and a USGS employee. The gage and the employee look small compared to the very large rocks that they are on top of. There is a small water fall to the left of the gage and the employee. This gage is in Rancho Guejito, California.

The Delaware River Basin had upward trends in specific conductance, total dissolved solids, chloride, and sodium. Deicing salt applied to parking lots can be a source of these constituents in water bodies (Photo by Meg Shoda, USGS, December 2020).

A photo of Alissa Coes, the Director of the Office of Quality Assurance in the Water Resources Mission Area. 

USGS recently tested ground-penetrating radar (GPR) on a drone for mapping peat thickness and extent. This work is part of a collaboration with Florida Atlantic University to study and locate large carbon gas emissions from peat soils in the swampy wetlands of the Everglades in Florida.

USGS recently tested ground-penetrating radar (GPR) on a drone for mapping peat thickness and extent. This work is part of a collaboration with Florida Atlantic University to study and locate large carbon gas emissions from peat soils in the swampy wetlands of the Everglades in Florida.

A staff profile image of Se Jong Cho, a research hydrologist and Mendenhall Research Fellow at the USGS.

Scientists from the National Water Census team (Shirley Leung, Kaycee Faunce, and Alice McCarthy) attend a conference to discuss USGS water data and products with USGS water data users.

A tile map of the US showing streamgages by flow levels through the month of October 2022. For each state, an area chart shows the proportion of streamgages in wet, normal, or dry conditions. Streamflow conditions are quantified using percentiles comparing the past month’s slow levels to the historic record for each streamgage.

This image displays the ModelMuse main window with several objects that define calibration observations displayed. The image is intended to be used with a video.

Screen capture of the ModelMuse main window with the cells colored with the hydraulic conductivity after being calibrated using PEST.

The image is intended to introduce a video.

What does the inside of a groundwater well look like? This can be an important question for groundwater scientists! In this photo, we see the view from a video camera inside a groundwater well. USGS scientists can use cameras to inspect the inside of a well to identify any changes in the well that might affect groundwater level measurements over time.

Graph of population potentially affected by groundwater contaminants (Belitz and others, 2022). Geogenic constituents affected a larger population compared to anthropogenic constituents.

USGS, ANA and Geological Survey of Brazil (SGB-CPRM) staff standing in front of an ANA/SBG-CPRM research vessel in the Amazon River basin in Manacapuru, Brazil to measure measure streamflow and sample suspended sediment.

SGB-CPRM (Geological Survey of Brazil)

ANA (Agencia Nacional De Aguas E Saneamento Basico)

Yellow sediment sampler suspended off side of boat in Manacapuru, Amazon River Basin, Brazil, during a field trip with USGS and National Agency for Water and Basic Sanitation (ANA) scientists (Brazil) and Geological Survey of Brazil (SGB-CPRM).

ANA (Agencia Nacional De Aguas E Saneamento Basico)

SGB-CPRM (Geological Survey of Brazil)

USGS, ANA and SBG-CPRM staff reviewing streamflow measurements on board an ANA/SBG-CPRM research vessel in the Amazon River basin in Manacapuru, Brazil. USGS staff in middle wearing orange shirt and yellow PFD, ANA and SGB-CPRM staff in navy blue attire discuss measurements and look over data.

SGB-CPRM (Geological Survey of Brazil)