Images

Close-up view of the 'Ili'ili entry.

The Puhi-o-Kalaikini ocean entry, which is almost 1 km (0.6 mi) long, continues to host a medium size steam plume near the center of the delta. Hidden from view in this photograph, another small plume to the west rises from the same delta, where a stream of lava enters the ocean.

In addition to filling in several small bays, lava has infiltrated small caves in the seacliff as well. Just a week ago this was a blowhole that occasionally shot seawater high into the air. Fresh lava, visible at the bottom of the pit, has since filled in the cave connecting the blowhole to the sea.

The western ocean entry, named Puhiokalaikini, has continued to build its delta to the west. Over the past day, lava filled in this small bay at a remarkable rate. The promontory in the upper right corner of the photograph hosted a popular fishing spot.

Steep view looking west into Pu' u 'Ō 'ō crater. The dominant degassing, obvious in this photo, is from a hole on the eastern wall of the crater.

View looking southwest across the Kalapana Gardens subdivision toward the ocean entries in the background. The slightly lighter-colored surface just past the houses and topped by burned trees marks the area recently covered by lava.

Mudflats (open water in background) derived via erosion and habitat conversion from former mangrove forests often have a band of mangroves adjacent to the creek bank.  Here a researcher accesses a mudflat at high tide to make measurements.

Lift nets buried in the forest floor and deployed at high tide permit the estimation of fish density within flooded forests.

Weather station site, Shenandoah National Park.

By August 17, the breakout which started on August 16 had reached the end Highway 130. The flows, however, had slowed considerably and were making little forward progress.

Dead molluscs and raccoon tracks are concentrated in cracks in mud in the substrate of a dried-down tidal pond.  Increased frequency and duration of droughts are predicted by some climate models.

Block of ice on Vitus Lake, Bering Glacier, Alaska.

This picture was taken during sediment coring field work for a project evaluating atmospheric loading of nutrients to high alpine lakes.

Fireweed gains a foothold in a burn area of the White Mountains in Alaska.

This low-level helicopter survey is designed to remotely study geologic units that lie below land surface. It is part of an ongoing USGS program to identify features such as changes in rock types, ultimately providing a better understanding of the geology and hydrology of the area. 

The small western entry point at Puhi-o-Kalaikini stopped this week, leaving just main entry point at the central tip of the delta. The delta is now 985 m (3230 ft) long and reaches up to about 170 m (560 ft) out into the ocean from the old sea cliff. It has a surface area of 28 acres.

Excavation of the initial Columbian mammoth remains found at the Ziegler Reservoir site.

Coastal Marsh along Cook Inlet across from Anchorage Alaska.

Drought and climate change are causing extensive forest dieback in the U.S. West as well as worldwide. These photos show dead ponderosa pines in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico killed by a combination of drought stress and attacks by bark beetles on weakened trees.

Great Lakes water availability studies conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey aim to help characterize how much water the Basin has now, how water availability is changing, and how much water it can expect to have in the future.

Photograph of new mobile telemetry trailer for the Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO). The purpose of the trailer is to provide a communication link in the event that CVO needs to respond to a Cascade volcanic crisis at a volcano that is currently under-monitored (includes all Cascade volcanoes except Mount St. Helens).