Images

Shaded relief backscatter image of a shipwreck near Cuttyhunk, MA

Shaded relief image of Woods Hole, MA

Scientists rely on measurements and networks of sensors to monitor Earth’s movements. Similar to tracking someone’s pulse, these sensors check the ‘hazard heartbeat’ of Earth’s surface, waters, and air. Hazard monitoring helps us understand where, when, why, and how much things change over time.

Prouty Glacier headwall on the northeast face of South Sister. Dipping stacks of lava and scoria were excavated by Prouty Glacier, exposing cross-sectional views of the last 33,000 years of summit activity. The 350-m-thick (11,500-ft) lava stacks are truncated at about 3000 m (9,800 ft) elevation, forming the ragged rim of a broad paleocrater.

Lost Creek Glacier and its cirque are in the center, and Eugene Glacier and its cirque are toward the bottom left. Fingerlike lobes of dacite lava dribble down northwest ridge atop fragmental deposit and beneath capping agglutinate. The entire edifice visible here was built between 30 and 20 ka.

Radially dipping strata of the cone include subequal proportions of lava flows and flow breccias and of proximal agglutinate and scoria falls, nearly all having 54 to 56 percent SiO2. Numerous mafic dikes and sills intrude the cone, and an apron of compositionally similar mafic lavas extends far outward from the cone.

Swath bathymetry and derivative products such as slope, hillshaded relief, and rugosity maps provide information not only on water depth, but also the roughness and smoothness of the sea floor, which correlates with sea floor texture and depositional environment.

Image showing the bathymetry of the southern Gulf of Maine with the Massachusetts coastal zone boundary outlined in grey. The images on the right display how the geophysical and sample data are combined to create an interpretation of seafloor geology

Oblique hillshaded-relief view of the bathymetry surrounding Martha’s Vineyard and the Upper Cape looking south across Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound

The southern coastline of Maui, Hawaii, taken from the air, clearly showing old lava flows.

On July 21, 2007, an erupting fissure opened on the east flank of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō and propagated eastward toward Kupaianaha.

This event occurred on October 4, 2007 in La Jolla, California. A landslide, perhaps first indicated in July by cracks appearing in pavement and homes along Soledad Mountain Road, struck suddenly when a massive slab of hillside broke loose, sending tons of dirt cascading toward streets below.

Photograph of a starfish on the sea floor, offshore of Duxbury to Hull, Massachusetts

Aerial photo of Mount Shasta's southwestern flank in a low-snow period. The Hotlum cone is on the right, while the Shastina dome is to the left.

The residential area of Hermosa, SD, was inundated by flooding along Battle Creek during a severe thunderstorm on August 17, 2007.

A large tree was deposited on the back of this truck by flood waters during the Hermosa flood. A system of severe thunderstorms on August 17, 2007, caused heavy precipitation and flash flooding in and near Hermosa, SD.

U.S. Geological Survey employees survey high water marks following the Hermosa flood. A system of severe thunderstorms on August 17, 2007, caused heavy precipitation and flash flooding in and near Hermosa, SD.

Battle Creek near Hermosa, SD, on August 20, 2007. A system of severe thunderstorms on August 17, 2007, caused heavy precipitation and flash flooding in and near Hermosa, SD. A peak flow of 18,600 cubic feet per second was determined at USGS streamgage 06406000 (Battle Creek near Hermosa, SD) following the Hermosa flood.

The bridge abutments were scoured by Battle Creek flood waters during the August 17, 2007, storm that caused flash flooding in and near Hermosa, SD.

U.S. Geological Survey Hydrologic Technician, Joel Petersen, shows the high-water mark on a tree following the Hermosa flood. A system of severe thunderstorms on August 17, 2007, caused heavy precipitation and flash flooding in and near Hermosa, SD.

Flood debris was caught in barbed wire fence after the Hermosa flood. A system of severe thunderstorms on August 17, 2007, caused heavy precipitation and flash flooding in and near Hermosa, SD.