Images

Pu’u ‘Ō’ō is a cinder and spatter cone in Kilauea’s east rift zone. It began erupting on January 3, 1983; a summary of its eruption can be found here. This image shows the result of the largest of the collapse pits that began to appear around 1993.

Burned-out buildings in downtown Grand Forks, North Dakota.

An inundated building in Grand Forks, North Dakota durring the Red River of the North Flood.

Boats on city streets of Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota during the 1997 Red River of the North flood.

The Holiday Mall in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, during the Red River of the North flood.

Downtown Grand Forks, North Dakota flooded by the Red River of the North in 1997.

The Sorlie Bridge between Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, during the 1997 Red River of the North flood.

Grand Forks flooding on Highway 2.

Flooding of homes in Grand Forks, North Dakota in 1997.

U.S. Geological Survey employees being transported to sites by National Guard personnel.

Fire consumes an building on a farmstead near the Red River of the North in northeastern North Dakota.

The flag of the United States of American flies over flood water in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Flood waters inundated Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota.The picture is looking west to Grand Forks, North Dakota and the  USGS gage house is the small white square in the center of the picture.

Photograph of the large jökulhlaup that spread out across Skeiðarársandur (glacial outwash plain) from the terminus of Skeiðarárjökull, an outlet glacier of Vatnajökull.

A crystallized dacite flow in northern Chile. Dacite is extrusive and the volcanic equivalent of granodiorite. 

Channelized flows on Socompa. Socompa is a large stratovolcano on the border between Chile and Argentina, the youngest of a chain of volcanoes that runs northeast to southwest.

A burst tumulus near Kamokuna, which is a lava delta where Puʻu ʻŌʻō flows enter the Pacific Ocean. Tumuli can burst when the influx of lava is rapid compared to the rate at which the crust is thickening by cooling. In these cases the pressure driving the lava is significantly greater than the weight of the overlying crust.

Subsequent flows have fed lava into the skylight. A stationary crust is formed on margins of the flowing lava within the tube at this location, probably due to the loss of heat through the skylight.

A “drippy” tumulus near Kamokuna, which is a lava delta where Puʻu ʻŌʻō flows enter the Pacific Ocean. These tumuli form when the upwelling lava has a steady pressure and rate of movement, so the upper crust does not break apart. Instead, the lava slowly squeezes out.

A cinder cone within the Mount Aso caldera, located on Kyushu Island, Japan. The caldera contains several cinder cones and stratovolcanoes.

Rubens coil inside the Rock Magnetics Laboratory on the USGS Menlo Park campus. The function of the Rubens coil is to cancel the earth's magnetic field for thermal demagnetization of core samples. It is constructed of nonmagnetic materials and the control unit is place far enough away from the instrument to avoid interference from its metal components.