Images

Gas plume rising from the new Overlook Vent in Halema‘uma‘u Crater, Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i. Trade winds blow the plume to the southwest.

Road sign on Highway 11 advises drivers to roll up windows to protect themselves from high sulfur dioxide gas concentrations Kīlauea volcano on April 9, 2008. The temporary sign was put in place by Hawai‘i County Civil Defense, the agency responsible for public safety.

A plume of volcanic gases (chiefly water vapor, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide), tiny lava and rock particles, and droplets drifts southwest in the tradewinds from Halema‘uma‘u Crater.

Iowa State Grad students Devan McGranahan and Torre Hovick, along with DNR private land specialist Josh Rusk and ISU Research Technician Shannon Rusk ignite a prescribed fire on a patch-burn grazing research pasture in southern Iowa.

Ash-rich plume rises out of Halemaʻumaʻu Crater, Kilauea Volcano Hawaiʻi.
 

View of ash-rich plume rising from a new vent in Halema‘uma‘u Crater in Kīlauea Caldera 5 days after the first explosion from the vent occurred on March 19, 2008. The ash is turning the formerly white steam and gas plume a dusty-brown color. Note the ash fallout down-wind of the plume.

B.K. Martin, hydrologic technician in the Little Rock office of the USGS Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center, measuring streamflow with an acoustic doppler current profiler during flood of March 19, 2008, at USGS streamflow-gaging station 07056000, Buffalo River near St. Joe, Arkansas. Photograph by W.E.

The explosion occurred at 2:58 a.m. HST on March 19, 2008. The explosion scattered rock debris over an area of about 30 hectares (75 acres), covering a portion of Crater Rim Drive and damaging Halema‘uma‘u Overlook. The wooden fence of the overlook was bombarded by rocks hurled onto the rim of Halema‘uma‘u crater from the fumarolic area.

This fumarolic area appeared on March 12, 2008. Gas is being emitted through rubble the Halema‘uma‘u Crater wall. The white fume is a mixture of condensed water vapor, sulfur trioxide, and invisible sulfur dioxide. The fume takes a pale bluish color if it contains very tiny sulfur particles (in center of fuming area).

Glass Mountain obsidian flow at Medicine Lake volcano, California. Glass Mountain is a spectacular, nearly treeless, steep-sided rhyolite and dacite obsidian flow that erupted just outside the eastern caldera rim and flowed down the steep eastern flank of Medicine Lake volcano.

Scientists at Lake Michigan Ecological Research Station are examining how habitat structure, fire history, nesting resources, and plant community composition affect bee community composition.

Stream of lava from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō flowing through the forest in the Royal Gardens subdivision, February 28, 2008. The lava stream is about 3 m (10 ft) wide. Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i.

HVO technicians install a solar-powered seismic station near the summit of Kīlauea Volcano to monitor earthquake activity. The seismic data is transmitted via radio signal directly to the observatory, where the data is initially analyzed by automatic computer programs and then examined in greater detail by a seismologist. Mauna Loa Volcano in background.

Underwater photograph of Tumon Bay Marine Reserve, Guam, showing some of the amazing biologic diversity of coral reefs.

A surface expression of geothermal activity.

A surface expression of geothermal activity.

A surface expression of geothermal activity.

Shaded relief image of Woods Hole, MA

East face of North Sister, 750 m high. Consists of about 100 thin mafic lava flows and intercalated layers of red scoria, capped by thick summit lava flows. Remnant of Thayer Glacier feeds cirque lake. Pervasively altered yellow-orange buttress on right, 250 m thick, consists of east-dipping, palagonitized, ash-rich fragmental flow deposits.

Hydrothermal system and water flow in the subsurface beneath Long Valley Caldera, California. Cartoon Illustration from USGS FS 2007-3045.

The USGS, in cooperation with Santa Cruz County and the California Department of Boating and Waterways, studied the seacliffs, ocean floor, and waves of Pleasure Point, California.   We created detailed maps of the seacliffs and ocean floor using LIDAR laser scanners and sonar.