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It’s not just the U.S. military working to bring a better future to Afghanistan. How the USGS is helping

As the team of responders struggled to end the worst oil spill in our Nation’s history, USGS scientist Paul Hsieh provided the critical scientific information needed to make a crucial decision.

The movie Contagion dramatizes the scenario of a global pandemic that begins with the spread of a disease from animals to humans. What are real-life experts doing to prevent a pandemic that originates with wildlife?

In research released September 29, 2011, USGS announced that it had mapped more than 96 percent ofAfghanistanwith hyperspectral imaging (also referred to as imaging spectroscopy data). That’s more than any other country in the world, including the U.S. Using a WB-57 aircraft as well as ground-based tools, USGS scientists directed a campaign to collect andContinue Reading

Join us on October 5th to learn more about the minerals we use on a daily basis, where these resources come from, and the steps involved from mineral discovery to mineral use.

Climate Change Impacts to Tribal Communities The USGS is working with Native American communities and organizations to understand climate change impacts to their land and neighborhoods. Projects include interviews with indigenous Alaskans to understand their personal observations of climate change, as well as studying how climate change is impacting sand dunes and posing risksContinue Reading

As climate changes, it affects the timing of when leaves emerge, the amount of foliage that grows as well as the timeframe when leaves begin to fall.

How will accelerated glacial melting over the next 50 years as a result of climate change affect the unique Gulf of Alaska and Copper River coastal ecosystems? USGS scientists are studying these processes and impacts.

USGS scientists are assessing the potential to remove CO2 from the atmosphere for storage in other Earth systems through a process called carbon sequestration.

The U.S. Geological Survey research looked at one of the world’s largest populations of long-tail ducks and found that hundreds of thousands of these elusive birds engage in a bizarre 30-50 mile morning commute from Nantucket Sound to the Atlantic Ocean, returning each evening.