Images

Examples of the diversity of shells from Arctic ostracode species. There are more than 100 different species living in the Arctic Ocean. From Gemery et al., 2015, An Arctic and Subarctic ostracode database: biogeographic and paleoceanographic applications. Hydrobiologia. DOI 10.1007/s10750-015-2587-4 Images Captured by Laura Gemery, USGS.

South Cascade Glacier, northwestern Washington State. South Cascade Glacier located in a north-northwest facing valley near the crest of the Cascade Range in northwest Washington state. In 1959 scientists with the USGS began collecting mass balance data on South Cascade Glacier, now one of five "benchmark glaciers" in the US.

Calving of Snow River Glacier in early September 2015, resulted in icebergs floating in Snow River Lake.

Researchers use ground penetrating radar to determine the depth of the snow on Wolverine Glacier in Alaska.

Spring fieldwork on the Benchmark Glaciers involves digging deep snow pits to measure the density profile of the surface snowpack. 

Lemon Creek Glacier is located in the high-latitude maritime region of Alaska, at the southernmost tip of the Juneau Icefield. Glacier observations began at this site in 1953.

Marine terrace soil at Wilder Ranch State Park near Santa Cruz, California. Here at the bottom of the pit, 64 inches (160cm), the colors have different mineralogy and chemistry from one another, these changes have been formed by root processes over 90,000 years of soil development.

Sperry Glacier area change, 1950 - 2014. Sperry Glacier occupies a broad, shallow cirque situated just beneath and west of the Continental Divide in the Lewis Mountain Range of Glacier National Park, Montana.

The Gulkana Glacier weather station collects data on air temperature, wind speed and direction, and cumulative precipitation.

Photo of Wolverine Glacier ice. Wolverine Glacier is in the Kenai Mountains on the coast of south-central Alaska. In 1966 scientists with the USGS began making direct measurements of surface mass balance at Wolverine Glacier, a "benchmark glacier" in Alaska.

From a hand-dug snow pit, a researcher samples cores of surface snow at Sperry Glacier to determine snow density, a measure needed to calculate glacier mass balance.  

Sunset view looking northwest from Fishermans Cove, across Ashumet Pond, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The small sticks and flags in the lake are a sampling grid. 

USGS researchers Jack McFarland and Kristen Manies taking permafrost cores to study the carbon cycle in Interior Alaska.

View looking west from Fishermans Cove, across Ashumet Pond, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The small sticks in the lake are a small-scale sampling grid. 

USGS field crew taking a break in digging soil pits Mattole soil chronosequence.

Deployment of a gravity corer aboard USCGC Healy during an expedition to the Chukchi Sea. 

USGS scientists and cooperators service an eddy covariance (EC) station located in a tidal freshwater marsh at Salvador Wildlife Management Area, Louisiana, USA.

Aerial view of the study area in Canyonlands National Park.

Marine terraces North of Santa Cruz, California.  For information on terrace formation https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/fs20183002 

Understanding the forces that influence major floods can help inform the design of more resilient infrastructure. Image shows a major flood on the St. John River on the border of Maine, United States and New Brunswick, Canada, April 29, 2008. This site was part of the study. USGS Public Domain.

Streamflow in the Ducktrap River, coastal Maine, showing typical spring high flow in April 2005.