Images

Interior of room 40 inside the tarpaper shacks on the USGS Menlo Park campus, circa 1965. During the early 1960s, three of the key scientists working on the theory of magnetic reversals operated in the Rock Magnetics Laboratory that was housed in these shacks. The Rock Magnetics Laboratory was designated a National Historic Landmark on October 12, 1994.

USA-National Phenology Network citizen-scientist Lucille Tower records the one millionth observation on maple vine in the large nature database.

A USGS herpetologist with a Sonora Mud Turtle (Kinosternon sonoriense; photo left) and Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans;
photo right) at Montezuma Well, Montezuma Castle National Monument.

The Spinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt are pictured here.

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

USGS scientist Craig D. Allen observes the results of the extensive, tree-killing fire that consumed almost all above-ground biomass in this part of the Las Conchas Fire burn area in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico. Photo taken in late August 2011, two months post-fire.

Drift wood and other organic material showed up at the Paria Riffle due to high water volumes. 

USGS scientists up on the cable way at Lees Ferry measuring suspended-sediment transport.

Previously undiscovered photo of undocumented Russian Crown Jewels were recently discovered in the USGS library. The photo appear in a 1922 album called "Russian Diamond Fund," that was uncovered in the rare book room of the library. This brooch was one of the four undocumented jewels.

Previously undiscovered photo of undocumented Russian Crown Jewels were recently discovered in the USGS library. The photo appear in a 1922 album called "Russian Diamond Fund," that was uncovered in the rare book room of the library. This photo, taken in 1925, shows the entire Russian jewelry collection.

USGS Aquatic Ecologist Ted Kennedy sampling invertebrate and organic drift at Lees Ferry during the November 19, 2012 HFE.

USGS Aquatic Ecologist, Ted Kennedy, getting a reading off the flow meter.

View of the Colorado River from a bench near Water Holes Canyon.

USGS Hydrologist David Topping's sediment monitoring gauges.

This is red Seneca sandstone, the building block of the Smithsonian Castle. It originated in a quarry on the shores of the Potomac River in Maryland, and is more than 200 million years old.

This U.S. Capitol gatepost was built circa 1827 and is made of Aquia Creek Sandstone, the same material that makes up most of the U.S. Capitol building. It stands at the intersection of 15th Street, NW, and Constitution Avenue.

Scientists from AIST, JOGMEC, Georgia Tech, and the USGS prepare to analyze pressure cores as part of a multi-year gas hydrates research project in Japan. This photo shows the pressure core storage chambers, which contain hydrate-bearing sediment samples obtained from the Nankai Trough offshore Japan.

Scientists from AIST, JOGMEC, Georgia Tech, and the USGS prepare to analyze pressure cores as part of a multi-year gas hydrates research project in Japan. Left to right: David Mason (USGS), Carlos Santamarina (Georgia Tech), and Yoshihiro Konno (AIST).

Scientists from AIST, JOGMEC, Georgia Tech, and the USGS prepare to analyze pressure cores as part of a multi-year gas hydrates research project in Japan. Left to right: Emile Bergeron (USGS) and Carlos Santamarina (Georgia Tech) watch the movement of a sediment pressure core on a video screen.

Scientists from AIST, JOGMEC, Georgia Tech, and the USGS prepare to analyze pressure cores as part of a multi-year gas hydrates research project in Japan. The cores and pressure vessels are very heavy to move around, so they are using an overhead hoist system with chains to move the devices.

Scientists from AIST, JOGMEC, Georgia Tech, and the USGS prepare to analyze pressure cores as part of a multi-year gas hydrates research project in Japan. Front to back: Masato Kida (AIST), Yoshihiro Konno (AIST), William Waite (USGS), Jiro Nagao (AIST), and Yusuke Jin (AIST), analyze test results from pressurized hydrate-bearing sediment cores.