Images

Illustration of Gage Greatness Round 2 bracket. Winners are shown through Round 1.

At the USGS, we monitor our nation’s water. Our data informs many people, from kayakers to water managers. Gage Greatness allows any Twitter user to vote for their favorite gage (data collection station).

This is the instrument laboratory of the Organic Geochemistry Research Laboratory located in the KS WSC.

Photograph of Summer Lake Wildlife Area, an important stopping spot for migratory birds on their spring and fall migration flights. 

USGS-HIF Gaging station with elevated platform, two stilling wells and shelters, and plenty of work area for evaluation instruments. (Credit: Scott Kimball, USGS) 

USGS-HIF rain gauge and meteorological instrument testing site, “the Corral,” with multiple instruments currently under test. (Credit: Scott Kimball, USGS) 

USGS-HIF instrument shelter located on the left bank on the upstream side of the bridge with Iridium and GOES antennas. (Credit: Scott Kimball, USGS) 

USGS map identifying the percent probability for any location in New Hampshire to have groundwater with radon concentrations greater than the state government’s standard of 2,000 picocuries per liter for drinking water.

This is a still, thumbnail image for the U.S. river conditions for Oct 1, 2022 through September 30, 2022.

This map shows the airborne geophysical survey area and planned flight paths across the Illinois River Basin in Illinois and northwest Indiana. Surveys will not occur directly above populated areas. Planned flight lines and survey progress can be found online. 

(USGS map) 

Thumbnail image of US river conditions from October 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022.

A tile map of the US showing streamgages by flow levels through the month of December 2022. For each state, an area chart shows the proportion of streamgages in wet, normal, or dry conditions. Streamflow conditions are quantified using percentiles comparing the past month’s flow levels to the historic record for each streamgage.

USGS Arroyo Hondo near San Jose CA (11173200) streamgaging station in January 2023 (watershed burned by SCU Lightning Complex in August 2020) (photo by Emily Zierdt-Smith, USGS)

A map of the contiguous U.S. using a snowflake hex pattern to show snow persistence over a 20-year period. Snow persistence is measured as the snow cover index, or the average fraction of time snow was on the ground from Jan 1 to. July 3 from 2001-2020.

Sharon Mulready, USGS Hydrologic Technician, recording the high-water mark on gage 11161000 San Lorenzo River Santa Cruz. The stream is filled with a tremendous amount of sediment moved by the storm on December 31st, 2022.

This USGS map shows the number of PFAS detected in tap water samples from select sites across the nation. The findings are based on a USGS study of samples taken between 2016 and 2021 from private and public supplies at 716 locations. The map does not represent the only locations in the U.S. with PFAS.  

High water in the Walnut Creek watershed in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 2022. Flooding can impact nearby infrastructure, including homes, businesses, roads and trails. Credit: Kristina Hopkins, USGS.

A photo of a USGS streamgage and a USGS employee. The gage and the employee look small compared to the very large rocks that they are on top of. There is a small water fall to the left of the gage and the employee. This gage is in Rancho Guejito, California.

The Delaware River Basin had upward trends in specific conductance, total dissolved solids, chloride, and sodium. Deicing salt applied to parking lots can be a source of these constituents in water bodies (Photo by Meg Shoda, USGS, December 2020).

USGS recently tested ground-penetrating radar (GPR) on a drone for mapping peat thickness and extent. This work is part of a collaboration with Florida Atlantic University to study and locate large carbon gas emissions from peat soils in the swampy wetlands of the Everglades in Florida.

USGS recently tested ground-penetrating radar (GPR) on a drone for mapping peat thickness and extent. This work is part of a collaboration with Florida Atlantic University to study and locate large carbon gas emissions from peat soils in the swampy wetlands of the Everglades in Florida.