Images

Storm clouds moving in over the park entrance.

Bumble bee over a cone flower.

Three bumble bees around a cone flower.

The new solar heating system will reduce the center's carbon footprint by supplementing the current natural gas boiler and reduce energy costs.

A USGS employee locates a telemetry tagged pallid sturgeon between attempts to recapture the fish with a trammel net in the Missouri River. 

The 100 yr old, 108 ft tall Elwha Dam drawdown of water from Lake Aldwell reservoir began June 1, 2011 in preparation for Elwha Dam.

The view of Cougar Dam and the fish facility from the upper cliff side. 

Tribal members welcome "families" from other Salish Sea Indian and First Nation Tribes.

Deputy Assistant Secretary Deanna Archuleta tours the Bonneville Dam to view the fish ladder and in particular the native Pacific Lampreys used as first foods by Tribes along the Columbia River.

Maple River Dam spillway comparison in 2011. The top photo was taken on July 14, 2011, with a gage height of 1,027.30 feet and a streamflow of 809 cubic feet per second. The bottom photo was taken on April 13, 2011, with a gage height of 1,052.95 feet and a streamflow of 4,960 cubic feet per second.

USGS Diver Nancy Elder recording invertebrate data.

Pallid sturgeon embryo propagated at the Columbia Environmental Research Center.

USGS scientists have worked closely with Afghan geologists, both to verify old Soviet and Afghan mineral research and to expand and enhance the total knowledge of Afghanistan's mineral wealth.

Sunrise peering through early morning tule fog in Suisun Bay, California.

In the semiarid mesquite savanna community, pictured here, perennial grasses and forbs both are likely to decline as annual and winter precipitation decline with forecasted climate change.

The Boulder magnetic observatory. Variations and Proton Sensor buildings at the lower right.

Picture of the Elwha River in Olympic National Park in Northwest Washington.

The May 12, 2008, Great Sichuan Earthquake, also called the Wenchuan Earthquake, occurred at 14:28 local time, in Sichuan Province, China. The earthquake magnitudes were Mw = 7.9 (USGS), Ms = 8.0 (Chinese Earthquake Administration). The epicenter was 80 km west-northwest of Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province.

An ichthyoplankton sampling net being deployed in the Missouri River.

A Cessna Grand Caravan airplane took measurements over Virginia's Louisa, Goochland and Fluvanna counties. The data collected will help USGS scientists locate buried geologic features associated with the August 23, 2011 earthquake and its aftershocks. Surveys were conducted from 7/15- 7/25.

Damage to a house in Louisa County, Virginia, after a magnitude 5.8 earthquake on August 23, 2011.