Images

Computer images showing the coastal cliff area of Mud Creek on the Big Sur coastline, central California, where on May 20, 2017 a catastrophic landslide destroyed over 400 meters of scenic California State Highway 1. These illustrations show the changes to the digital surface models of Mud Creek during the three primary phases of the landslide: (

Native sulfur crystals precipitate at Sulphur Banks via a chemical reaction between different sulfur-bearing volcanic gases. USGS image by P. Nadeau.

HVO gas geochemists periodically collect gas samples at Sulphur Banks, near the Kīlauea Visitor Center, in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park. Samples are analyzed for bulk chemistry and for helium isotopes. The results are compared to previous measurements to evaluate potential changes in activity at the volcano.

An HVO geologist removes the sampling tube following the gas collection. Inserting the tube down into the degassing source limits contamination of the volcanic gas sample by atmospheric gases. USGS image by P. Nadeau.

COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) Interferogram for the period from April 6 to June 2, 2019, covering Kīlauea Volcano's summit region. Each color fringe represents 1.65 centimeters (0.65 inches) of ground displacement.

Map showing the surficial geology from this study and Baldwin and others (2016) with equivalent onshore geology (adapted from Stone and DiGiacomo-Cohen, 2009). The areal extents over which offshore subsurface geologic units crop out at the sea floor were interpreted from seismic-reflection data.

Montana State University students at an outcrop along Highway 20, in Idaho, sampling the Mesa Falls Tuff fall deposit exposed just beneath the ignimbrite. Photo by Madison Myers (Montana State University) on June 9, 2019.

Magma dynamics experiments seek to recreate the pressure and temperature at depths far beneath a volcano, in order to determine how the magma forms, evolves, and ascends prior to eruption.

A debris flow in Marin County triggered by intense rainfall destroyed several homes and injured one person during February 2019.  View is looking from the top of the landslide downslope.

Areas on Kīlauea that will be covered by a helicopter lidar survey in June 2019. Red lines enclose areas over which the survey helicopter will fly at 396 m (1,300 ft) above ground level. Green lines enclose areas over which the helicopter will fly at 151 m (500 ft) above ground level. USGS map.

Map showing the three types of young faults in Yellowstone National Park. Courtesy of the Wyoming State Geological Survey.

Schematic illustration showing the inferred irregular conduit geometries of (a) Old Faithful geyser, in Yellowstone National Park; (b) Velikan geyser, in Kamchatka, Russia, with boulders at the bottom depicted in brown; and (c) Geysir, in Iceland. The walls of the conduits are lined with white silica sinter similar to that exposed on the surface.

Schematic illustration showing the inferred subsurface structure of Geyser Flat, Whakarewarewa, in the Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand. From manuscript by Hurwitz and Manga (Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 2017. Vol. 45, pp. 31–59).

USGS geologists are conducting field work at the summit today to make observations of volcanic ash and measure volcanic gas. This photograph is taken on Crater Rim Drive where the road intersects the Southwest Rift Zone. Rockfall dust and volcanic ash covers the ground and cracks in line with the Southwest Rift Zone trace traverse the pavement.

Image showing a collage of examples of multi-channel and single-channel seismic data collected by the USGS, seismic equipment deployed from a research vessel, and seismic equipment on a research vessel.  These data are critical to the CMG Program as they define the geology in marine and coastal environments.

The beach-dependent shorebirds project at the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center models current and future habitat availability for nesting shorebirds in an effort to map current and likely future habitat availability on a range of sites along the U.S. Atlantic coast.

The nighttime Oakland city skyline as seen from San Francisco with the Bay Bridge in the foreground

Map of the Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket study sites outlined in red.

Aerial view of a southeast Louisiana coastal marsh.

East end of Fire Island, showing white sandy beaches and marshes, depicted with airborne imagery, and lidar-derived bathymetric features in the estuary behind the island, in the offshore region, and in the channel connecting the estuary to the ocean. 

USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California installed these two video cameras, pointed at the shoreline. The cameras collected imagery every half hour for 10 minutes, during daylight hours. The images are stored in the cloud and are used to study coastal variations through time, like wave, shoreline, and sandbar dynamics.