Images

The Colorado River, brown from heightened suspended load following rains, flows through Paleoproteroic basement and overlying Cambrian Tapeats Sandstone in the Grand Canyon (Arizona, USA).

Sunset view across Little Molas Lake, an alpine glacial lake on the west side of the Animas River Valley (San Juan Mountains, Colorado, USA).

The flat-lying rhyolite of Cropsy Mountain overlies the hydrothermally altered Summitville Andesite (San Juan Mountains, Colorado, USA). 

Research Geologist Theresa Schwartz takes field notes about the Cenozoic sedimentary rocks of Bat Mountain (Death Valley region, California, USA).

Intermountain West Project members Adam Hudson and Michael Frothingham, in collaboration with National Park Service archaeologist Patrick Fristoe, inspect gravel deposits and associated geologic hazards along the Hines Creek fault system, Denali National Park (Alaska, USA).

In an effort to better understand the effects of abandoned mine lands on natural resources, Research Geologists Margaret Berry and Adam Hudson collect samples of ancestral Animas River sediment for geochemical analysis (Durango, Colorado, USA).

Research Geologist Amy Gilmer walks over carbonate rocks of the Upper Triassic Star Peak Group (northern Humboldt Range, Nevada, USA).

Research Geologist A. Kate Souders samples fluvial sandstones of the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation (eastern Nevada, USA). 

Research Geologist A. Kate Souders investigates complexly deformed, middle Cenozoic volcaniclastic rocks of the Death Valley region (California, USA).

Research Geologist Marieke Dechesne describes fluvial deposits of the Paleocene Raton Formation (Raton Basin, Colorado, USA). 

The moon sets over an exposure of the Great Unconformity within the Colorado National Monument (Colorado, USA). At this location, Paleoproterozoic granite (foreground) is unconformably overlain by the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation.

Photography of split sediment cores is calibrated for color/light. This example is from Lake Lucille, Alaska.

USGS UAS pilot Mark Bauer (NUSO) conducts lidar mapping flight over Ackerson Meadow in November 2023

Footprints found in White Sands National Park were dated to the Last Glacial Maximum by USGS Research Geologists Kathleen Springer and Jeff Pigati.

Photograph of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA. Photo taken on September 8, 2023.

In August 2023, the USGS National Uncrewed Systems Office (NUSO) participated in a collaborative field campaign to collect remote sensing data over agricultural crop fields in California's Central Valley. Hyperspectral satellites were commissioned in coordination with hyperspectral UAS flights at an altitude of 300 feet above ground level.

NUSO researchers reviewing hyperspectral data acquired by UAS flown over crops at Firebaugh, CA

UAS in flight at the Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge in Colorado

Matt Burgess (NUSO) checking the hyperspectral sensor externally mounted to a UAS (held by Joe Adams NUSO) prior to flights in California

Dense point cloud generated using UAS photogrammetric techniques with natural color based on imagery acquired at the Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Colorado.

USGS remote pilot Victoria Scholl flying a UAS at the Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research Site near Fairbanks, Alaska