Images

Middle fork of the Salmon River near Shoup, Idaho.

A hydrologic technician from the USGS Idaho Water Science Center measures streamflow in the St. Joe River at Red Ives Ranger Station in northern Idaho. The USGS is collecting data at hundreds of sites on rivers and streams in six western states to document the 2015 drought.

Christian Bongard collects data from a weather station in the Shenandoah National Park.

Margaret Hiza Redsteer has been named one of the lead authors of a chapter in the next IPCC report, due to be published in 2014. Hiza Redsteer has been assigned as a lead author of Chapter 15 of the Fifth Assessment Report, entitled Adaption, Planning, and Implementation.

A USGS technician finishes construction on a monitoring station used to monitor surface salinity and temperature below Faka Union Canal Weir #1, Florida. By measuring hydrologic conditions here, researchers found that freshwater flow rates help maintain warm water pockets in downstream areas of the canal.

Stream flowing into the Potomac River in Whites Ferry, Virginia.

Ash Falls on the Niobrara River showcases the Niobrara's uniqueness. Photo was taken to capture falls' legacy.

Self-portrait of hydrologic technician. Streamgaging is an important facet of the USGS.

Seam or bed of Pliocene lignite from a mine in the Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) area of Romania. Rainwater falling onto the surface penetrates into the ground, becoming ground water, and leaches toxic organic substances from this coal.

USGS scientist Bill Orem (left) and Adrian Muntean, a colleague from Romania, sampling water from a well in a Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) household in Serbia. The scientists will analyze the water for the presence of coal-derived organic substances dissolved in the water.

Native Americans of the Miwok tribe in the northern Sierra Nevada, California carved these basins into the granite bedrock to produce salt for trade. They filled the basins with water from a salt spring and let the water evaporate, leaving a salt residue in the basin. The basins are about a meter in diameter and span the area of a football field.

Native Americans of the Miwok tribe in the northern Sierra Nevada, California carved these basins into the granite bedrock to produce salt for trade. They filled the basins with water from a salt spring and let the water evaporate, leaving a salt residue in the basin.

Native Americans of the Miwok tribe in the northern Sierra Nevada, California carved these basins into the granite bedrock to produce salt for trade. They filled the basins with water from a salt spring and let the water evaporate, leaving a salt residue in the basin.

Baldcypress forest along the banks of Rainey Lake, remnant of a dwindling habitat that is being studied by scientists at the NWRC.

A scientist creates a quality control sample for a study of MTBE, (methyl tert-butyl ether) a fuel oxygenate used in gasoline.

Alk titration in the field as part of NAWQA studies.

GPS unit on well head at a private drinking water well.

Establishing a release site for salmonids implanted with radio transmitters. Behavior and movement of salmon are monitored as they migrate through the Toutle River.

2009 Red River flooding in Grand Forks, North Dakota

Stream in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia.

USGS staff checking the streamgage equipment on the San Saba River in Texas.