Images

USGS scientist Shannon Mahan records notes at a field sampling site.                                                                                  

USGS Pathways intern Allison Kusick labels rotosonic sediment cores collected from a glacial lake in Jefferson County, Wisconsin.

USGS scientists Brandon Graham, Grant Colip, and Shannon Mahan collect sediment samples at US Army Base Fort Drum, New York.

Will Odom is a Research Geologist at the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center. Hiswork uses cosmogenic nuclide geochronology and AI-based mapping techniques to address geologic, tectonic, and geomorphologic questions.

Mineralized silicified cataclasite (fault rock) from the Roanoke Rapids terrane in southeastern Virginia. This rock contains abundant pyrite, as well as traces of gold, silver, and telluride minerals. 

A paleoliquefaction sand dike in riverbank sediment along the Nottoway River in southeastern Virginia (the dike is the light-colored vertical feature between the shovel and the end of the sample tube). Such sand dikes may be the result of strong earthquakes.  We collected sediment in the tube for optically stimulated luminescence dating (conducted by the U

Large pavement outcrop of granite in the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia.  These rocks may hold valuable mineral commodities, but such pavements also host unique and rare plant ecosystems.  Our work in Georgia provides critical geologic information for natural resource management. 

An outcrop of greenschist-facies metamorphosed siltstone from the Roanoke Rapids terrane in southeastern Virginia.

This is a map showing the various different rock bodies of the Piedmont geologic province spanning Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia.

Photo of the Laser Diffraction Lab at the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center                                        

Scallop shells from the Miocene and Pliocene were as big as dinner plates         

A sediment core being measured and described at the drill site                   

Logo for Paleoclimate Research: Integrating Systems and Models (PRISM5) project at Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

Project co-lead Harry Dowsett by Miocene sediments at Stratford Hall, VA in support of the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

Project co-lead Marci Robinson by Pliocene sediments near Rushmere, VA in support of the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center

A photo of the Leica Z16 APO petrographic microscope equipment housed in the Laser Diffraction Lab

Beckman Coulter LS 13 320 XR laser diffraction analyzer equipment housed in the Laser Diffraction Lab.

A photo of the Bruker S1 Titan portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) instrumentation housed in the Laser Diffraction Lab.

A photo of sediment samples being prepared for portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis in the Laser Diffraction Lab at FBGC

USGS geologists document potential paleoliquefaction features from past seismicity at the southernmost edge of the Central Virginia Seismic Zone. Radiocarbon data suggest these features along Fountain Creek near Skippers, VA may be related to an earthquake that occurred near Petersburg, VA in the late 1700s.

Fountain Creek, Skippers, Virginia

Brandon Graham collecting a sample from a sediment exposure at Army Base Fort Drum, New York. These samples were collected as part of an OSL (optically-stimulated luminescence) dating campaign in collaboration with Shannon Mahan of the USGS Luminescence Lab in Denver, CO.

Fall 2023 Photo Contest Winner: Grant Colip, USGS at Work category