Images

Torbernite is a copper phosphate mineral that contains uranium, making it somewhat radioactive. Although it can be used as a uranium ore, it's more valued as a collectors mineral. It can be used as a good indicator of uranium deposits, however.

GeoGirls hike onto the Pumice Plain to learn more about Mount St. Helens’ historical

eruptions.

Coal is loaded into trucks at the Trapper Mine in northwest Colorado.

Many species of Hawaiian honeycreepers have persisted into the 20th century because high elevation rain forests on the islands of Kaua’i, Maui, and Hawai’i are cool enough to limit transmission of introduced avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum).

Eastern tiger salamanders are on the move! This one was spotted crossing the road at St. Croix Wetland Management District in Wisconsin. Tiger salamanders mostly eat small insects and worms.

Photo by Caitlin Smith/USFWS.

USGS scientist Robert Baskin takes a boat out on the Great Salt Lake to conduct research. 

This is an example of a USGS storm-tide sensor. 

Havasu Creek spilling over Havasu Falls, downstream from Supai Village on the Havasupai Nation.

Sarah Frey, a Northwest Climate Science Center graduate fellow at Oregon State University, records information during a point count at the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon.

A Chinese firebelly newt (Cynops orientalis), the salamander species recently found to be infected with the spring viraemia of carp virus, or SVCV.

Photograph showing Papatea Fault surface rupture near Waipapa Bay in New Zealand. The fault moved about 10 m horizontally and uplifted shoreline platform about 2 m at this location.

Photograph showing landslides covering State Route 1 near Ohau Point. The route was impacted my several landslides and is the main north-south highway on the eastern part of the South Island of New Zealand.

This is a sample of rutile, one of the primary mineral sources of titanium. While as a metal, titanium is well known for corrosion resistance and for its high strength-to-weight ratio, approximately 95% of titanium is consumed in the form of titanium dioxide (TiO₂), a white pigment used in paints, paper, and plastics.

A sample of azurite, the blue mineral, and malachite, the green mineral. Both azurite and malachite are copper minerals that were once used as pigments but are now mostly valued as collectors minerals. They do serve as good indicators of copper deposits that can be developed.

This sample is clinozoisite, a calcium aluminum silicate mineral. It is mostly prized as a collectors mineral rather than a source of its industrial mineral commodities.

Sample provided by Carlin Green, USGS. Sample originated from Hachupa, Pakistan, and is 6.0cm in size.

Pyrrhotite is an iron sulfide mineral related to iron pyrite, which is one of the minerals known as Fool's Gold. Pyrrhotite, although not one of the Fool's Gold minerals, is sometimes called magnetic pyrite as it is weakly magnetic. It is most valued as a collectors mineral.

These two minerals are apophyllite and prehnite. Both apophyllite, the clear crystals, and prehnite, the green mineral, are primarily prized as collectors minerals. 

Sample provided by Carlin Green, USGS. Sample originated from Virginia Crushed Stone Quarry, Virginia, and is 4.6cm in size.

A sample of bastnaesite, one of the principal mineral sources of rare-earth elements. Rare-earth elements are essential components in most modern electronics.

The quality of the water we drink can potentially impact our health. The USGS has several programs and cooperative projects that characterize the quality of selected rivers and aquifers used as sources of drinking water to community water systems in the United States.

Researchers survey Elwha River elevation and depths. Clockwise from upper left: setting up a traditional survey instrument above the river; measuring river depths from a kayak with sonar and GPS; walking the beach with GPS backpacks; and determining offshore depths using a personal watercraft with GPS and sonar.

Ocoee River, Tennessee