Images

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.

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).

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.

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

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

Boardwalk through the Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research Site near Fairbanks, Alaska

In August 2023 the NUSO flew UAS equipped with custom methane-detecting sensors over Interior Alaska to support USGS and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development research into low-cost ways to measure methane emissions.

USGS researcher Joe Adams preparing a UAS for flight at the Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research Site in Alaska

Matt Burgess (NUSO) providing shade to remote pilot Victoria Scholl (NUSO) as she flies a UAS over crops in California

Collaborators Kristen Manies (Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center), Joe Adams (National Uncrewed Systems Office, NUSO), Victoria Scholl (NUSO), Brian Gullett U.S.

Physical Scientist Michelle Leung prepares to drill tree cores in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado. Tree cores provide seasonal to centennial records of past precipitation and provide local to regional reconstructions of hydroclimate.

Michelle Leung and Becky Brice collect samples from fire-scarred trees in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado. Trees provide records of past droughts, fires, and the response of vegetation to a changing snowpack.

Physical Scientist Michelle Leung and Geographer Becky Brice collect samples from fire-scarred trees in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado. Trees provide records of past droughts, fires, and the response of vegetation to a changing snowpack.