Images

Duane Champion (shown here on the left, with two coworkers) helped us to unlock Pele’s secrets by studying the magnetic properties preserved in lava flows. A good friend and valuable colleague, he greatly improved our ability to reconstruct past geological events using paleomagnetism. He will be missed.

Wendy Stovall photographed at a monitoring station in the Prince William Sound, Alaska. 

Although most economic loss is concentrated along the west coast, the distribution of relative earthquake risk, as measured by the Annualized Earthquake Loss Ratio (AELR), is spread throughout the country and it reinforces the fact that earthquakes are a national problem.

Map showing distribution of average annualized earthquake loss by region. The high concentration of loss in California and the West Coast is consistent with that region’s high seismic hazard, significant population, and building exposure. 

Jonathan Godt is the Program Coordinator for Landslide Hazards and leads the only federal program dedicated to landslide science and risk reduction.

Landslides near the 2017 Thomas fire burn area that initiated during a series of atmospheric river events in December 2022 and January 2023.  

Example of a landslide that initiated within the footprint of the 2019 Cave Fire during the 9 January 2023 rainstorm. The landslide source area is shown in the upper left of this image. The debris-flow runout path is shown in the center and lower right of this image.

San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico landslide lonitoring site. The San Lorenzo monitoring station is located in a moderately vegetated area underlain by Cretaceous volcaniclastic rock. 

Dr. Donya-Frank Gilchrist of the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center facilitated a session on "Approaches to Resilience from the International Caribbean" at the 2023 Southeast and Caribbean Disaster Resilience Partnership (SCDRP) Annual Meeting in Miami, Florida.

From left to right: Meaghan Emory, Dr. Donya Frank-Gilchrist, Dr.

Dr. Donya-Frank Gilchrist of the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center facilitated a session on "Approaches to Resilience from the International Caribbean" at the 2023 Southeast and Caribbean Disaster Resilience Partnership (SCDRP) Annual Meeting in Miami, Florida.

A USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist documents the new eruption within Halema‘uma‘u crater, at Kīlauea summit within Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. The eruption began just after 4:30 p.m. on January 5, 2023, and remains confined to Halema‘uma‘u crater. USGS image by D. Downs.

The KWcam webcam, on the west rim of Kīlauea caldera, was upgraded on January 4, 2023, to a more advanced model, which provides a slightly wider view and higher image quality. This should provide an improved view of any future activity in Halema‘uma‘u. In this photo, an HVO scientist begins the process of the webcam swap. USGS photo by M. Patrick.

The large HTHH volcanic explosion created fast low-frequency pressure waves that penetrated about 3.1 miles/5 kilometers into the shallow crust (shown in yellow). Wind and small explosions (shown in blue) create shorter pressure waves that only penetrate down about 328 feet/100 meters.

The waveforms of the ground motion recording and the pressure sensor recording from a station with both types of instruments (see second image above) match up, indicating that the pressure waves are causing the ground (crust) to deflect.

As sea levels rise, salt water extends further up tidal rivers. As sea-level rise accelerates, vegetation transitions are increasingly observed and USGS scientists are busy assessing those changes. USGS scientists take soil cores in the marsh. 

USGS scientists collect core samples from marsh to explore the drives of wetland accretion in the face of rising seas and human impacts impact the evolution on salt marshes.

USGS scientists collect core samples from marsh to explore the drives of wetland accretion in the face of rising seas and human impacts impact the evolution on salt marshes.

A UAS flies a photogrammetry mission over recently burned landscapes in Tahoe National Forest.

Isaac Anderson (National Innovation Center) preforms a pre-flight check of a UAS before a photogrammetry mission in post-fire, landslide-prone terrain in Tahoe National Forest.

Isaac Anderson and Liz Hyde (National Innovation Center) bring in a drone for a landing, after flying a photogrammetry mission over landslide-prone terrain recently burned in the Mosquito fire (2022).