Images

USGS scientist Chris Rowden drives a research vessel measuring streamflow alongside another field crew on the Mississippi River at St. Louis.

USGS scientists Chris Rowden, Larry Buschmann and Bob Holmes were on the Mississippi River at St. Louis taking streamflow measurements on New Years Eve, 2015. This information is critical to the National Weather Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and emergency managers in making flood predictions and response.

USGS scientist Chris Rowden drives a research vessel measuring streamflow alongside another field crew on the Mississippi River at St. Louis.

USGS crews had two research vessels out measuring streamflow on the Mississippi River at St. Louis on New Years Eve, 2015. USGS scientists Eric Looper and Jason Carron are one of many USGS field crews out in the floodwaters over the holiday.

USGS scientists Chris Rowden, Larry Buschmann and Bob Holmes were on the Mississippi River at St. Louis taking streamflow measurements on New Years Eve, 2015. This information is critical to the National Weather Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and emergency managers in making flood predictions and response.

Frac sands used in unconventional oil and gas development.

The challenging and complex study environment of Molokaʻi’s (Hawaiʻi) fringing reef. Learn more about USGS studies on this island: “Coral Reef Project: Molokaʻi”

Geologic field-trip guide to Lassen Volcanic National Park and vicinity, California

Geophysical Surveying on city street in New York

Left: USGS research hydrologist Mark Reid (left) and USGS research geologist Kevin Schmidt collect GPS data along the Big Sur coast on September 19, 2007. Photo credit: Maiana Hanshaw, USGS (now with swisstopo).

A grizzly bear has cached an elk carcass in Grand Teton National Park. Scientists used DNA from hair samples collected from barbed wire to estimate whether the availability of carcasses associated with an elk hunting season resulted in temporary immigration of grizzly bears. 

Groundwater modeling workshop participants in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, with the
U.S. team. Training was delivered to 39 professional hydrogeologist and hydrologists during the Phase I
training. More information on this study is available at https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20161096.

Fractures in bedrock transmit groundwater, and geologic mapping is conducted to provide the geologic framework for groundwater resource studies. This photo shows iron-oxide staining (Leisegang banding) from past groundwater flow along fractures formed prior to the rock having been blasted open during road construction. 

Heading out to do field work for a permafrost loss study in the Yukon River Basin. 

View out over the Crescent Lake landslide from the headscarp (left foreground) of the Red Bluffs landslide, looking toward Stevenson, Washington and the Columbia River.

Idealized diagram of a public water supply's water distribution system.

Illustration of the NIMBBLE (New instrument for making bottom boundary layer evaluations). The NIMBBLE is a low-profile platform with two acoustic Doppler velocimeters and an upward-looking acoustic Doppler profilers.

Student dusts the Model A Ford coupe used by USGS scientists from the 1930s to 1965. 

Photograph of a Juncus marsh in the Tampa Bay estuary, Florida.

The November 25, 2015, breakout that began as a rupture from the tube supplying the June 27th lava flow advanced slowly to the northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō (background) and reached the forest in mid-December, but still poses no immediate threat to Puna communities. USGS image.

Reduced surface-water availability (associated with droughts) during 1976-77, 1986-92, 2007-09, and 2012-current caused groundwater-pumping increases, water-level declines to near or beyond historic lows, and renewed aquifer compaction.