Earthquake hazards are a national risk, with nearly half of Americans living in areas prone to potentially damaging earthquakes. Thankfully, there are many tools and resources available to prepare people for earthquakes and reduce their risk and exposure to them. For example, the USGS monitors current earthquake activity, provides earthquake early warning for all of the West Coast, and produces hazard assessments for the entire country. We also work closely with our federal, State, and local partners to prepare people for earthquakes with annual ShakeOut events and other resources like the HayWired scenario.

The United States is home to 161 active volcanoes. Any of which could show signs of unrest hours, days, or months before they erupt. To help keep people safe, the USGS monitors eruption precursors as part of the National Volcano Early Warning System. By analyzing data from its monitoring networks, we can issue public warnings and alerts about potentially hazardous activity, including forecasts of ash and ashfall that may affect aviation. The USGS works with emergency-management authorities well in advance of volcanic crises to raise the public’s awareness of volcanic hazards and to help potentially impacted communities prepare.

Do you know how vulnerable your community is to flooding? The USGS, working with federal, State, and local partners provides valuable information that officials, emergency responders, resource managers, and communities can use to help them prepare for, cope with, and recover from a storm. USGS collects flood and water-level data for major hurricanes or storms affecting the United States. The data is accessible to the public in the USGS Flood Event Viewer. In addition, the USGS assesses the likelihood of beach erosion, overwash, or inundation. The USGS provides real-time assessments of the impacts of approaching storms via the Coastal Change Hazards Portal. This online tool allows anyone to interact with regularly updated forecasts of hurricane-induced coastal change, as well as “see” past, present and future hazards along the coastline from local to national scales. Learn more about how USGS responds to hurricanes.

Landslides occur in all 50 states, and every year they cause billions of dollars in damage. USGS science is helping assess where, when, and how often landslides occur and how fast and far they might move. For areas burned by wildfires, we deliver rapid assessments of debris-flow likelihood to emergency responders and land managers to help prepare for postfire hazards. If you live in a landslide-prone area, do you know what to do before, during, and after a landslide occurs?

Many people may not realize this, but about 20 percent of the nation is at risk from sinkholes. These areas are typically underlain by limestone, or karst, which can be easily dissolved by groundwater. The USGS maps the Nation’s underlying geology and helps officials and land managers better understand regions at risk to sinkholes.

Wildfires are beneficial, yet destructive. Nature needs fire to flourish and regrow. However, for people living in wildland areas, living through a wildfire can be devastating. To help people better understand and prepare for wildfires, USGS provides a number of invaluable tools and resources. Whether we are forecasting fire danger, assessing fire trends over time, or supplying the data land managers use to make informed decisions, our research is constantly being used to keep people safe and reduce the impacts wildfires have on towns across the Nation.

Geomagnetic storms are caused by a dynamic interaction between the solar wind and the Earth’s magnetic field. The resulting rapid magnetic field fluctuations can interfere with radio communications, satellites, and airline activity. Large magnetic storms can even interfere with the operations of electric power grids, causing blackouts. For these reasons, these storms are considered hazardous for both the economy and national security. The USGS operates a network of specially designed observatories that provide real-time data on magnetic storm conditions.