Mission Areas
Natural Hazards
Every year in the United States, natural hazards threaten lives and livelihoods and result in billions of dollars in damage. We work with many partners to monitor, assess, and conduct targeted research on a wide range of natural hazards so that policymakers and the public have the understanding they need to enhance preparedness, response, and resilience.
Reducing Risk
USGS scientists develop new products to make science available to the public, emergency managers, and decision-makers. These efforts increase public safety and reduce risk and economic losses caused by natural hazards.
Learn MoreSubduction Zone Science
The most powerful earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and volcanic eruptions occur in subduction zones, where two plates collide and one is thrust beneath another.
Learn MoreNews
Trump Administration Officials Tour New Mt. Rainier Lahar Detection Stations
TACOMA, Wash. — Deputy Secretary of the Interior Katharine MacGregor, U.S. Geological Survey Director Jim Reilly, and Counselor to the Secretary Margaret Everson, Exercising the Delegated Authority of the Director of the National Park Service, today visited Mount Rainier National Park to announce the successful permitting and ongoing installation of five new lahar monitoring stations.
Media Advisory: Exclusive Interview Opportunities with Interior Officials to Learn about New Mt. Rainier Lahar Detection Stations
TACOMA, Wash. — What is a lahar and why are they a threat to those who live below Mount Rainier? Journalists are invited to learn about the threat potential posed by lahars from Mount Rainier to local communities and how new USGS lahar monitoring stations will integrate into emergency preparedness and response.
Fire Science Critical for Combating Wildfires Out West
Visit our USGS Wildland Fire Science webpage to learn how USGS science is making a difference.
Publications
Exposure of an early to middle Noachian valley network in three dimensions on Mars
We document a set of channels in a section of the Martian cratered highlands located between crustal massifs northeast of Hellas Planitia that are visible in cross section and planview >200 m below the surface. The morphometry and spatial distribution of the outcrops provide concrete geological evidence of a dynamic aqueous system in a...
Skinner, James A.; Fortezzo, Corey M.; Mouginis-Mark, Peter J. Localized fault-zone dilatancy and surface inelasticity of the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes
Earthquakes produce a spectrum of elastic and inelastic deformation processes that are reflected across various length and time scales. While elasticity has long dominated research assumptions in active tectonics, increasing interest has focused on the inelastic characteristics of earthquakes, particularly those of the surface fault rupture zone...
Barnhart, William D.; Gold, Ryan D.; Hollingsworth, James Identifying the greatest earthquakes of the past 2000 years at the Nehalem River Estuary, Northern Oregon Coast, USA
We infer a history of three great megathrust earthquakes during the past 2000 years at the Nehalem River estuary based on the lateral extent of sharp (≤3 mm) peat-mud stratigraphic contacts in cores and outcrops, coseismic subsidence as interpreted from fossil diatom assemblages and reconstructed with foraminiferal assemblages using a Bayesian...
Nelson, Alan R.; Hawkes, Andrea D.; Sawai, Yuki; Engelhart, Simon E.; Witter, Robert C.; Grant-Walter, Wendy C.; Bradley, Lee-Ann; Dura, Tina; Cahill, Niamh; Horton, Benajamin P.