Images

Cool, clear rivers of the Texas Hill Country attract visitors for many recreational opportunities. Here, a family enjoys paddleboarding at Schreiner Park during spring break in Kerrville, Texas.

Researchers approach Blackfoot Glacier in Glacier National Park.

Biologists at Columbia Environmental Research Center drawdown and seine a pond to collect reproductive pallid sturgeon.  The pond has been specially designed to provide turbid, flowing water that pallid sturgeon need to thrive.

USGS geologist Deborah Bergfeld measures the temperature of a thermal feature near Big Boiler at Bumpass Hell in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

USGS geologist Laura Clor (right) and Rachel Teasdale (California State University – Chico, left) collect gas samples from a thermal feature at Sulphur Works in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Western view toward the Red Mountains near Silverton, Colorado, taken just upstream from the North Fork Cement Creek drainage in 2006. The photo illustrates acidic drainage (red drainage at right) and less acidic drainage (white drainage at left of photo) that originates from altered rocks and mines in the watershed.

Ferricrete (surficial deposits cemented by iron oxides) formation at the base of Cement Creek north of Silverton, Colorado.

Photograph showing the impact of a large wave at the south shore of Laysan Island, with endangered Laysan teal in the foreground.

Location: Laysan Islands (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands).

An unknown hybrid species of salamander captured in Olympic National Park, Washington.

Snakehead fish are originally from China and Korea, but recently they've been found in Maryland, Virginia, Arkansas, California, and Florida.

Numerous distinct methane streams emanating from the seafloor at an upper slope (< 500 m water depth) cold seep site offshore Virginia. Image courtesy of NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, 2013 Northeast U.S. Canyons Expedition.

Aerial view looking into the center of the dome-shaped pluton.

Black scorpion (Centruroides sp.) held in a person's hand.

The USGS is offering surplus engraved copper plates for sale through government auction.

USGS geologist Deborah Bergfeld collects a gas sample from a superheated (hotter than the boiling point) fumarole in Little Hot Springs Valley at Lassen Volcanic National Park.

A biological technician of the USGS National Wildlife Health Center tests chicken eggs inoculated with a field sample from wild birds to detect the presence of avian influenza virus.

Yosemite National Park geologist Greg Stock and USGS civil engineer Brian Collins download data from instruments measuring how much granitic exfoliation sheets move from daily temperature variations as a precursor to rock fall.

Meadow vole rests in its habitat.

A photomicrograph depicting the siliceous tests of ten species of marine radiolarians. Upon death, their tests can form siliceous marine sediments known as radiolarian ooze.

Forest cover being removed for cattle pasturage and development. Bulldozer and smoke from bulldozed trees in the background with cattle in the foreground.

Researcher Amanda Kissel pauses by a lake in Mt. Rainier National Park.