Images

A 2006 photo taken on a USGS Land Cover Trends trip in Montana showing strips of cropland with fallow land in between.

A lake with submerged trees in Day County, South Dakota, part of the Prairie Pothole Region. 2006 photo from the USGS Land Cover Trends project

West African antelope

The intricate lines angling and criss-crossing over the landscape are roads in extreme southwestern Kazakhstan. The turquoise areas to the left are salt flats and marshes, some parts of which are submerged (dark blue). The water body is Sor Kaydak, which was once a gulf of the Caspian Sea.

Do you see a scary face looking back at you? The hollow-appearing eyes, narrow nose, and slash of a mouth are inundated patches of shallow Lake Eyre (pronounced "air"). Deep in the desert country of northern South Australia, Lake Eyre is an ephemeral feature of this flat, parched landscape. When seasonal rains are abundant, water fills the lakebed to some degree.

A popular holiday destination, the Lake District in northwestern England is a region of picturesque mountains and long, narrow lakes. Most of the lakes lie in U-shaped valleys that were carved by glaciers during the last ice age. Morecambe Bay, below the Lake District, opens into the Irish Sea.

Landsat 7 infrared image of wildfires near Yucca Valley, California. July 2006

Farmland near Hydetown, Pennsylvania, part of the Erie Drift Plain Ecoregion. This photo was taken during fieldwork for the USGS Land Cover Trends project. The project was focused on understanding the rates, trends, causes, and consequences of contemporary U.S.

In the style of Van Gogh's painting "Starry Night," massive congregations of greenish phytoplankton swirl in the dark water around Gotland, a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. Phytoplankton are microscopic marine plants that form the first link in nearly all ocean food chains.

Vivid colors and bizarre shapes come together in an image that could be an imaginative illustration for a fantasy story. This labyrinth of exotic features is present along the edge of Russia's Chaunskaya Bay (vivid blue half circle) in northeastern Siberia. Two major rivers, the Chaun and Palyavaam, flow into the bay, which in turn opens into the Arctic Ocean.

A landscape scene in Senegal, photographed in 1983 by U.S. Geological Survey Scientist G. Gray Tappan as part of his work on West African land cover. Tappan photographed the scene again in 1994.

A landscape scene in Senegal, photographed in 1994 by U.S. Geological Survey Scientist G. Gray Tappan as part of his work on West African land cover. Tappan previously photographed the scene in 1983.

A scene along a road in Senegal, photographed in 2004 by U.S. Geological Survey Scientist G. Gray Tappan as part of his work on West African land cover. Tappan had previously photographed the scene in 1994.

What appears to be a stroke of thick red paint is actually a remarkable interplay of light and cloud in the Canadian Rockies. Angling through them is part of the Rocky Mountain Trench, a valley that extends from Montana, USA, to just south of the Yukon Territory.

Herd of giraffes in Niger, West Africa

Dryland agriculture in the Northwestern Great Plains ecoregion.
 

Small, blocky shapes of towns, fields, and pastures surround the graceful swirls and whorls of the Mississippi River. Countless oxbow lakes and cutoffs accompany the meandering river south of Memphis, Tennessee, on the border between Arkansas and Mississippi, USA. The "mighty Mississippi" is the largest river system in North America.

Ethereal swirls of grease ice appear turquoise against the midnight blue of the northern Baltic Sea near the Aland Islands (red) between Finland and Sweden. An early stage of sea ice formation, grease ice consists of a viscous mix of tiny ice crystals and resembles an oil slick on the ocean's surface.

A thick stand of mature pine trees on the Southern Coastal Plain, specifically Florida. USGS photo for the Land Cover Trends project.

A cleared pine forest on the Southern Coastal Plain, specifically Florida. USGS photo for the Land Cover Trends project.

This logging truck was hauling a load of timber in the Southern Coastal Plain, specifically Georgia. USGS photo from the Land Cover Trends project.