Images

Joan Hagar and Amy Comstock assess the long-term ecological value and characteristics of snags created for wildlife

Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake dropped from nearly overflowing on April 26, 2015 (left), to about 62 m (203 ft) below the newly created (by multiple overflows) vent rim on May 15, 2015 (right). USGS photos.

This Voyager 1 image mosaic shows a large area of Io's volcanic plains, with numerous volcanic calderas and lava flows. Loki Patera, an active lava lake 1,000 times large than Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake, is the black horseshoe-shaped feature in the lower part of the image. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

Picturesque rivers of the Texas Hill Country can turn into raging torrents in the part of Texas known as Flash Flood Alley when storms drop many inches of rain in the river watersheds. This image shows a damaged street sign and flood debris left behind by record flood waters of the Blanco River near Martindale, TX on Memorial weekend, 2015.

Following heavy rains, Battle Creek near Keystone (streamgage 06404000) peaked at about 1,500 cubic feet per second on May 24 and was about 1 foot below flood stage. This streamgage is operated in cooperation with the South Dakota Department of Natural Resources, Water Rights Division.

Flooding occurred on May 24 on Battle Creek below Keystone, SD. Heavy rains in western South Dakota caused flash flooding in parts of the Black Hills on May 24-26.

Grizzly Bear Creek in Keystone, SD, on May 24, 2015. USGS streamgage 06403850 (Grizzly Bear Creek near Keystone, SD) showed the creek was more than one-half foot above flood stage on May 24.

The most distant active tip of the June 27th flow, visible at the left edge of the photo, was about 8.5 km (~5.3 miles) from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō today. This lobe of the flow intersected an old lava tube earlier in the week that transported lava a short distance downslope, where it emerged from skylights to make several small isolated pads of lava (center of the photo).

Alaska Department of Fish and Games vessel Solstice carried USGS scientists for three weeks in May 2015 while they mapped 650 square kilometers of seafloor and features beneath the seafloor in fine detail.

Flooding on the White River near Kadoka, SD, streamgage 06447000. Streamflow at this site was measured by USGS as about 26,000 cubic feet per second on May 18, 2015. Major flooding on the White River in South Dakota occurred in May 2015 following snow and rain events in western South Dakota.

Flooding on the White River near Kadoka, SD, streamgage 06447000. Streamflow at this site was measured by USGS as about 26,000 cubic feet per second on May 18, 2015. Major flooding on the White River in South Dakota occurred in May 2015 following snow and rain events in western South Dakota.

Flooding on the White River near Kadoka, SD, streamgage 06447000. The gage house is left of center near hay bales. Streamflow at this site was measured by USGS as about 26,000 cubic feet per second on May 18, 2015. Major flooding on the White River in South Dakota occurred in May 2015 following snow and rain events in western South Dakota.

HVO webcams captured a short-lived dusty-brown plume generated by a small rock fall from the summit vent wall at 3:24 p.m., HST, this afternoon (May 15, 2015).

Kīlauea Volcano's summit lava lake continued to drop today (May 15, 2015).

This sequence of HVO webcam images of Kīlauea Volcano's summit vent, recorded between 1:28 and 1:32 p.m., HST, on May 12, 2015, captures the moment a section of the dark-colored "bathtub ring" (a veneer of fresh lava that coats the vent wall as the lava lake level drops) fell into the lava lake (center).

The summit lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u Crater has dropped significantly over the past two days, as Kīlauea's summit has deflated.

The lava lake in the Overlook crater, within Halema‘uma‘u Crater at Kīlauea's summit, remains at a high level and close to the Overlook crater rim. Overflows onto the Halema‘uma‘u Crater floor have built up the rim of the Overlook crater several meters, and recent overflows are visible in the right side of the photograph.

This satellite image was captured on Wednesday, May 6, 2015 by the Landsat 8 satellite. Although this is a false-color image, the color map has been chosen to mimic what the human eye would expect to see. Bright red pixels depict areas of very high temperatures and show active lava. White areas are clouds.

A faint dusting of volcanic ash, produced by a small rockfall-triggered explosion in the Kīlauea summit lava lake on April 25, 2015, fell on this car parked near Jaggar Museum. Light rainfall afterward caused the ash to clump. USGS photo.

The June 27th lava flow remains active, with breakouts focused in several areas northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. The farthest downslope activity observed on today's overflight was roughly 8 km (5 miles) northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. This photograph shows one of the active breakouts closer to Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

One of several lobes on the June 27th flow that was at the forest boundary today, burning vegetation northeast of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.