Images

Cover of The HayWired Earthquake Scenario—We Can Outsmart Disaster, USGS Fact Sheet 2018-3016

One of 40 seismic receivers modified to work in water and anchored to the bottom of the Sea of Galilee in Israel's Dead Sea fault zone.

The Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Institute research boat Lillian on its way to deploy receivers in the Sea of Galilee to record data during an April, 2018 experiment to image the deep structure of the Dead Sea fault in Israel.

Working in a temporary lab in Kibbutz Moran, Lloyd Carothers (left, IRIS-PASSCAL) and Eldad Levi (Geophysical Institute of Israel) download data from seismic receivers (in blue and yellow boxes) retrieved after completion of the Dead Sea fault experiment.

USGS geomorphologist Pat Limber drives an all-terrain vehicle equipped with differential GPS, on Ellwood Beach in Goleta, California, collecting topographic, or elevation and contour, data. These data, accurate to about 1 inch (about 2 centimeters) both horizontally and vertically, are used to monitor seasonal beach changes.

[Left] This cross-section through the south part of the Island of Hawai'i illustrates the hypocenter of the 1868 great Kaʻū earthquake (red star), located on the décollement (bold black line) between Mauna Loa (brown) and the ancient ocean floor (tan). Earth's lithospheric mantle and the ocean are represented in green and blue, respectively.

Destruction caused by the 1868 great Ka'ū earthquake included the Wai'ōhinu church, shown here, in the Ka'ū District of Hawaiʻi Island. With a magnitude estimated at 7.9, the earthquake is the largest in Hawaii's recorded history. Photo by Henry L. Chase, published in "Volcanoes of Kīlauea and Mauna Loa on the Island of Hawaiʻi" by W.T.

Jackson Currie of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center drives a personal watercraft (PWC) offshore of Butterfly Beach in Montecito, California. The equipment on the PWC collects bathymetry, or depth, data which is used to map the nearshore. USGS has been mapping this area twice yearly—every spring and fall—since 2005.

USGS volunteer Josh Brown on Santa Claus Beach, Carpinteria, at the start of a 14-mile walking survey of southern California beaches. The differential GPS equipment carried in the backpack collects elevation, or topographic, data of the beach, accurate to about 1 inch (2 centimeters) both horizontally and vertically.

USGS geomorphologist Pat Limber drives an all-terrain vehicle equipped with differential GPS, on San Buenaventura Beach south of Ventura Pier, Ventura California, collects topographic, or elevation and contour, data. These data, accurate to about 1 inch (about 2 centimeters) both horizontally and vertically, are used to monitor seasonal beach changes.

Jackson Currie and Alex Snyder of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center drive personal watercraft (PWCs) offshore of San Ysidro and Oak Creeks, which let out onto Miramar Beach in Montecito, California.

Drone image of Nauset Inlet, Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts

Footprints in mud layer deposited on the sand at Miramar Beach in Montecito, California, by January 9 flood waters coming down San Ysidro Creek.

On March 25, between 10:06 and 10:08 p.m., a small lava flow began erupting onto the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater floor for the first time since May 2016. In this thermal image, taken by the PTcam today (March 26) at 1:18 p.m., the flow (bright color) appears to be supplied by one of the small spatter cones in the crater's south embayment.

Dr. Nial Peters from the University of Cambridge sets up the prototype radar on the rim of Halema‘uma‘u at the summit of Kīlauea in January 2018. Microwave pulses are transmitted from one dish towards the lava lake surface. Some of the microwave energy is reflected back and is received by the other dish.

To mark the 10th anniversary of Kīlauea Volcano's summit eruption, USGS-Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist Matt Patrick talks about his work monitoring the lava lake in Halema'uma'u Crater, for a USGS Volcanoes Facebook Live event.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the eruption within Halema‘uma‘u at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano. When the vent first opened on March 19, 2008, it formed a small pit about 115 feet (35 m) wide. Over the past decade, that pit (informally called the "Overlook crater") has grown into a gaping hole about 919 feet by 656 feet (280 x 200 m) in size.

When Matt measured the lava lake level this morning, the lake surface was 89 feet (27 m) below the Overlook crater rim. With the lava lake at that level, spattering on the lake surface could be seen from the Jaggar Museum overlook in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park today.

Brett Tipple (University of California, Santa Cruz) collects a sample of charcoal and soil adjacent to a gully forming on a hillslope above Sonoma Creek, which was burned by the Nuns wildfire in October 2017.

John Pohlman (USGS), David Brankovits (USGS/WHOI) and Jake Emmert (MG) deploy acoustic devices in open water sinkhole (or cenote) prior to a 6-month long installation in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico cave

On March 14, HVO's webcam [MLcam] captured this image of a double rainbow, which seems to end in Moku‘āweoweo, the caldera at the summit of Mauna Loa. No pots of gold were observed—only patches of snow from recent winter storms.