Images

Arizona saquaro will be one of the species looked at by USA-NPN volunteers.

California poppies.

Steve Nagel collects data from a weather station in the Shenandoah National Park.

Little blue herons are a species recorded in the historical bird phenology cards.

In an unearthly series of events, the USGS has created man-made moon dirt, or regolith, to help NASA prepare for upcoming moon explorations. Four tons of the simulant is expected to be made by this summer of 2009 and turned over to the scientific community involved in lunar exploration.

Rocks are collected from the Stillwater Mine in Nye, Montana to be used for making lunar regolith simulant.
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The plasma torch melter in Boulder, Colorado exists nowhere else in the world. The mixed and ground rock on the left in a 1-ton bag is fed into the melter to be made into glass.
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When firing, the Zybek melter plasma torches must be viewed wearing long sleeves and a welding mask to avoid potential burns from the 37,000 degree Fahrenheit blaze.
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While the susceptibility of endangered akiapolaau honeycreepers to avian malaria is unknown, it is likely very high given their current restriction to the highest elevation forests on the island of Hawaii.

Students Anaga Nmagu and Danielle Travers, hired with ARRA funds, are converting more than one million hand-written bird band recovery records into digital format at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.

This is a first aid kit used in fieldwork in the west. The kit is likely an army surplus item. The kit includes first aid materials for snake bites as well as more common ailments.
Object ID: USGS-000057

The kit contains over 600 pieces and was used at the Bird Banding Laboratory at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Maryland.
Object ID: USGS-000219

This instrument was manufactured by Spencer, Browning & Rust, London. A sextant is used for measuring the altitude of the sun or another celestial body; such measurements can then be used to determine the observer's geographical position or for other navigational, surveying, or astronomical applications.

Manufactured by E.H. Sargent and Company. The set includes the oven, ceramic crucibles, a mortar & pestle, lead tape and stirrers.
Object ID: USGS-000233

Constructed of maple with cast bronze Johnson Head, leather strap, cast steel shoes and attached hooks (probably not original). This tripod is about 50-1/2" in height (closed) and is nearly identical to another tripod in the USGS Collection (USGS-492).

Used in U.S. Geological Survey field work.
Object ID: USGS-000209

Also known as a drawing set, the instruments were used in cartographic work. The instruments include ruling pens and ring head dividers. This set was manufactured by Eugene Dietzgen & Company, Chicago and New York. The set was used by the U.S. Geological Survey Topographic Branch in the early decades of the 20th Century.
Object ID: USGS-000173

Shipwrecks and other artificial structures increase the potential for large invasions of unwanted species into coral reefs, even relatively pristine ones. In this picture, a shipwreck in the remote Palmyra Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean resulted in the dense colonization of an invasive coral-like species called Rhodactis howesii, pictured here.

Shipwrecks and other artificial structures increase the potential for large invasions of unwanted species into coral reefs, even relatively pristine ones. In this picture, a shipwreck in the remote Palmyra Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean resulted in the dense colonization of an invasive coral-like species called Rhodactis howesii, pictured here.

Electron & Nuclear Counter, Model #ARA35-1, Type DW-51. Manufactured by Cyclotron Specialties Company. Additional information would be appreciated.
Object ID: USGS-000262

This instrument was manufactured by Keuffel & Esser Company, New York & New Jersey, serial #2300. Stadia Hand Transits are made of up a small telescope with cross and stadia hairs and a circular box which serves as either a magnetic compass or clinometer. The company sold these instruments from 1910 until the 1930s.
Object ID: USGS-000349