Images

USGS Geologist Susan Karl investigates an outcrop of massive flake graphite (dark gray rock) at the Graphite Creek deposit located on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. An adit, a horizontal passage leading into a mine for the purposes of access or drainage, from historical mining is visible in the corner.

Alaska Science Center geologist Doug Kreiner and University of Alaska, Fairbanks professor Sean Regan look at igneous textures in granitic rocks hosting gold at the Pogo gold mine with Pogo exploration geologists.

Geologist, Sue Karl, at Graphite Creek Deposit on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. She is making field observations and measurements about the flake graphite deposit and the surrounding host rocks. These observations were used in developing a model of flake graphite genesis. Graphite is a critical mineral which the US depends entirely on imports.

A geologist, George Case, stands in front of an adit, an entrance to an underground mine, in the Graphite Creek Deposit on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska.

View of the Kigluaik Mountains gneiss dome which is the location of the Graphite Creek Deposit. The rocks of the gneiss dome were metamorphosed to as high as granulite facies during the middle Cretaceous (ca. 100 – 90 Ma), forming flake graphite ore in the process.

Scenic view of the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. Photo taken from a ridge above Graphite Creek, looking northwest towards the Imruk Basin. This area of the Seward Peninsula holds the largest graphite deposit in the US known as the Graphite Creek Deposit.

Common Murres holding Pacific herring at their breeding colony on Gull Island.

Arctic Terns in Cook Inlet, Alaska. There is bullwhip kelp on the surface of the water. 

A USGS scientist is conducting geologic mapping and collecting a sample of bedrock for new geochronologic analysis on the flanks of Victoria Mountain in the Yukon-Tanana upland of eastern interior Alaska.

A USGS scientist is conducting geologic mapping and collecting structural measurements from a bedrock outcrop in the West Crazy Mountains in eastern interior Alaska. The rock is metamorphosed chert that was originally deposited more than 350 million years ago in an ocean basin that was likely separated from present-day North America.

Vanessa von Biela (USGS – ASC) pulls in a surface trawl net in the Beaufort Sea, Alaska.

A fyke net is installed adjacent to Flaxman Island in the Beaufort Sea, Alaska.

USGS Alaska Science Center Research Fish Biologist Vanessa von Biela near Flaxman Island in the eastern Beaufort Sea.

Two Black-legged Kittiwakes fly around the nesting colony on Gull Island in Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

Thousands of seabirds occupy Gull Island, an important seabird nesting colony in Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

Common Murres nest along cliff edges and on the top of Gull Island in Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

Arctic smelt (Osmerus mordax), Beaufort Sea, Alaska. An Arctic smelt or rainbow smelt, (Osmerus mordax) from the Beaufort Sea, Alaska.

A scenic view of the Beaufort Sea, Alaska. This study site will evaluate the nearshore marine feeding areas of breeding adult red-throated loons and assess the response of loon reproductive success and nutritional content of nearshore fish communities.

Four Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida) from the Beaufort Sea, Alaska. This study will evaluate the nearshore marine feeding areas of breeding adult red-throated loons and assess the response of loon reproductive success and nutritional content of nearshore fish communities.

Two Red-throated loons (Gavia stellata) in a pond near the Beaufort Sea, Alaska.

Sean Burril (BOEM) and Ashley Stanek (USGS – ASC) measure and count fish in red floating net pen captured in the Beaufort Sea, Alaska.