Images

USGS crews had two research vessels out measuring streamflow on the Mississippi River at St. Louis on New Years Eve, 2015. USGS scientists Eric Looper and Jason Carron are one of many USGS field crews out in the floodwaters over the holiday.

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.

View out over the Crescent Lake landslide from the headscarp (left foreground) of the Red Bluffs landslide, looking toward Stevenson, Washington and the Columbia River.

A USGS SCUBA Diver Collects a Core from a Coral Using a Hydraulic Drilling System in the U.S. Virgin Islands. USGS Image (I. Kuffner).

David Pelunis-Messier and Milton Roberts navigating on the Tanana River, a main tributary of the Yukon River. The two are taking part in the Yukon River permafrost study. 

Healthy Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) near unpopulated Buck Island, U.S. Virgin Islands. Elkhorn coral is one of many important reef-building species that create 3D structure on the seafloor. Coral reef structure provides habitat for marine life and helps break up waves as they approach the coastline.

Trask River stage, discharge, and water-quality data are collected and used together to help monitor the current health of the river. Instream equipment is stored in protective housing to protect it from the elements. Data from the river are sent to equipment in the gage house, where it is stored then transmitted to USGS servers.

Between Lamesa and Big Spring, Texas, runs the Sulfur Spring Draw, a dry creek. It's the site of an economic calcrete-type uranium deposit, the Sulfur Springs Draw Deposit, where a new mineral was discovered in 2015.

USGS employee Owen Brenner walks across the Fire Island wilderness breach carrying a GPS backpack that allows him to collect precise elevation data in the shallows.

Karen Nelson (USFWS) acquiring geophysical data amidst a naturally occurring plant (Salicornia rubra) in northeastern Montana.

Packrats near their midden in the City of Rocks National Reserve. USGS Image (J. Betancourt).

Yukon River freezing up at Pilot Station, AK

Whitefish drying on a fish rack in Pilot Station, AK, in the Yukon River Basin. 

Caption: USGS scientist Zafer Defne measures water and sediment movement at Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey. Defne is co-author with USGS' Neil Ganju of a 2017 study on how to estimate coastal salt marshes' potential longevity, based on their sediment budgets and the ratio of open water to vegetation. Photo: Sandra Brosnahan, USGS

Scientists aboard the D/S Chikyu prepare to collect a research core drilled from marine sediments in the Indian Ocean. This research is part of the 2015 Indian National Gas Hydrate Program Expedition 02 (NGHP-02), which is a follow-up to the 2006 NGHP-01. 

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.

USGS scientist Bradley Van Gosen examines rock layers for the newly discovered mineral finchite near Lamesa, Texas.

Barred owls like this one were most strongly associated with patches of large hardwood and conifer trees in relatively flat areas along streams.  

Stop sign at the end of School House Hill Rd in Turner, Maine near USGS gaging station 01055500 on the Nezinscot River.

An adult pallid sturgeon, an endangered species.

A drake lesser scaup drops in at the Fort Smallwood Park in Maryland for a couple minutes before continuing north. This bird was not part of this new research. Photograph taken April 15, 2012. Credit: Bill Hubick.