Images

In July of 2016, a team from the Climate and Land Use Research and Development Program took a trip to South Carolina to study outcrops of the “Canepatch” and “Socastee” formations along the Intra-Coastal Waterway, near Myrtle Beach. The age of these fossiliferous marine units has been controversial for several decades.

Scientists sit on the ground with core samples

This gear, known as a Russian corer, is commonly used to extract sediment cores from field sites. 

In this photo, a lab technician sieves a sample to get rid of fine minerals (such as clay).

In a watch glass, a lab technician swirls out pollen from heavier mineral material and then pipets it out.

Seen in this image is the sieving setup of the pollen lab.

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. 

USGS Research Geologists Mark Carter and Wright Horton (right to left) and Virginia State Geologist David Spears staff an “Earthquakes in the Central Virginia Seismic Zone” information booth at the dedication ceremony for the newly constructed Louisa County, Virginia High School on 9 August 2015.  The old high school building was damaged beyond repair during th

A slice of a piston core containing wood and plant material from Russell Key in Florida Bay, Everglades National Park, April 18, 2014. The large piece of wood is from a red mangrove. Photo: USGS

The transition between a mud flat on the interior of Bob Allen Key (Florida Bay, Everglades National Park) and the mangroves that form the islands’ protective outer berm.  These black mangroves have pneumatophores – parts of the root that function like snorkels, allowing the roots to “breathe” when water overlies the mud flat. Photo: Anna Wachnicka, FIU

USGS Collaborators from Virginia Division of Geology and Mineral Resources and College of William and Mary sample sediment from a high-level terrace deposit about 200 feet above the James River in Cumberland County, Virginia, for age dating using the terrestrial cosmogenic nuclides (TCN) method.  This work was a collaborative effort between the Virginia Departm

An outcrop-scale brittle fault exposed on the shore of Lake Anna in the vicinity of the Dominion North Anna Power Plant.  The fault offsets a pegmatite dike within biotite granitic gneiss by about 1 meter, in a reserve (top-to-east) sense-of-motion.  The small fault is oriented 235°, with a dip of 30° to the northwest (view is to south in this photograph).

Field crew on Bob Allen Key in Florida Bay, Everglades National Park, April 14, 2014, conferring on next steps near core sites marked with orange flags.  The mangroves that form the islands’ perimeter are to the left and in the background.

In Photo: View south/southeast along eastern shoreline in April 2014 shows a dense berm of mangrove trees.  The bay is not visible. 

View looking east from the Virginia Blue Ridge across the Rock Castle Creek gorge to the rolling hills of the Piedmont.

Scientists collect cores on the Savannah River (December 2012). 

Panoramic view (~270 degrees) looking across the Blue Ridge of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee (from left to right).  The Valley and Ridge is in the distance (gap between mountains). 

Panoramic view looking southeast across the Blue Ridge of Virginia and North Carolina.  The mountains in the distances are underlain by amphibolite of the eastern Blue Ridge. 

Equipment used by USGS scientists and partners to collect sediment cores at Basin Bayou in Florida. This is part of research by the USGS and partners to understand past hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico and northern Atlantic Ocean. Credit: Jessica Rodysill, USGS. 

Picture of the Outer Banks in South Carolina, November 2011 

Picture of the Outer Banks in South Carolina, November 2011.