Images

A point sampler for measuring sediment. It has tail fins to orient the sampler so that the intake nozzle in the head points directly into the approaching flow. The sampler head is hinged to provide access to the pint or quart bottle sample container located in a cavity in the sampler body.

A road sign warns drivers to watch for USGS crews measuring streamflow on the Bonnet Carré Spillway during flooding.

A view of the Bonnet Carré Spillway, which is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In this image, floodwaters from the Mississippi River flow through from left to right into the Spillway, eventually bound for Lake Pontchartrain.

A current meter. The rotating silver cups measure how fast the water is flowing. Meanwhile, the black torpedo-shaped object is a weight that keeps the current meter relatively stationary and the fins keep the current meter facing into the approaching flow.

The USGS Streamgage at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, during the 2015/2016 Mississippi River Valley Flooding.

Waves flood across a coastal road near Santa Cruz, California.

Sections of Fashion Valley Road, San Diego, were closed by flooding of the San Diego River. Closed roads were a common scene in San Diego and throughout California during the El Niño-related storms, Jan 6 - 7, 2016. Hydrographers from the Poway Field Office closely monitored high-flow conditions throughout the storms.

Jon Newby and Travis Kordiak, USGS Hydrographers from the California Water Science Center Redlands Field Office, take high-water measurements at USGS streamgaging site 11059300. The site is on the Santa Ana River in San Bernardino, California, and is one of more than 500 streamgage locations in California.

Synthetic surrogate water-hardened Silver Carp Eggs settled on top of a sediment bed. Laboratory experiments in flowing water demonstrate egg suspension at lower velocities than previously thought.

USGS hydrologist Jason Ramage collects a groundwater-level measurement using a steel tape in Freeport, Texas. 

A new interactive web application illustrates how groundwater, sediment compaction and land-elevation change are related in the Houston-Galveston region in Texas. 

USGS scientist Chris Rowden drives a research vessel measuring streamflow alongside another field crew on the Mississippi River at St. Louis.

USGS scientists Chris Rowden, Larry Buschmann and Bob Holmes were on the Mississippi River at St. Louis taking streamflow measurements on New Years Eve, 2015. This information is critical to the National Weather Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and emergency managers in making flood predictions and response.

Drilling to take water chemistry samples for permafrost study in the Yukon River Basin

Student dusts the Model A Ford coupe used by USGS scientists from the 1930s to 1965. 

USGS scientist, Rick Arnold collects groundwater samples to determine water quality. 

A sample of finchite, a newly discovered uranium mineral. Finchite is the yellow material on the surface of the rock. Finchite is found in the late Pleistocene sediments deposited during the Illinoian glacial stage.

The Southern High Plains of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. USGS conducted a uranium assessment in this region in 2015.

The Southern High Plains of New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. USGS conducted a uranium assessment in this region in 2015.

USGS scientists collect sediment samples in a gas hydrates area during a cruise on the U.S. Atlantic margin in 2015.

Experimental laboratory setup to study uranium in aquatic organisms. Bottles contain artificial freshwater amended with dissolved organic matter and a range of uranium concentrations.

USGS scientists Kate Allstadt and Cynthia Gardner tell the story of the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens and how the catastrophic landslide, lateral blast, and lahar changed the landscape.