All Multimedia

Pilot Barry expertly flies the plane at the correct survey speed and altitude to obtain crisp, clear images.

The Seabird Studies Team at the USGS Western Ecological Research Center is conducting aerial photographic surveys of the ocean off central and southern California to create comprehensive maps of seabird and marine mammal distributions.

View of the ocean off the central California coast at the start of a flight.

The Seabird Studies Team at the USGS Western Ecological Research Center is conducting aerial photographic surveys of the ocean off central and southern California to create comprehensive maps of seabird and marine mammal distributions.

Biological Technician Amelia DuVall views data in real time during an aerial photographic survey.

Spring wildflowers captured on California's Channel Islands.

The USGS Western Ecological Research Center's Dr. Kathryn McEachern studies plant ecology and restoration on the Channel Islands. Learn more here.

USGS scientist Hal Nelson wades in a stock tank to install a fitting on the discharge pipe of a groundwater well to facilitate water quality sampling in the western Plains of San Agustin. Photo taken by Jeff Pepin on April 4th, 2019. 

The weather was warm and sunny during a routine visit to the Halema‘uma‘u webcam. No significant changes were observed, and no rockfalls were heard.

David Sullivan, USGS, using an ice bar to chip away at the ice built up on the trail to get down to the water-quality sampling site at USGS gage Connecticut River near Thompsonville, CT

Theresa Armijo, USGS, collecting water-quality samples from the Connecticut River by USGS gage 01184000, Connecticut River near Thompsonville 

Colin Sweeney, USGS, collecting water-quality samples from the Connecticut River, CT

As the sun rose above Mauna Kea (background) on July 6, 1975, eruptive fissures along the Northeast Rift Zone of Mauna Loa fed voluminous ‘a‘ā lava flows that quickly moved down the north flank of the volcano. USGS photo by D. Peterson.

A hyperpigmented melanistic skin lesion on a Smallmouth Bass from the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

SPMSC scientist Lauren Toth conducts a photographic survey of Porter Patch reef off Key Largo, one of the sites that has been surveyed as part of FWRI’s Coral Reef Ecosystem Monitoring project since 1996.

Brittney Izbicki, USGS, at the edge of the ice in the Connecticut River, preparing to collect water-quality samples.

In Photo:  Berm of Jim Foot Key about 1.5 years after Hurricane Irma. The red circle indicates the same position as shown in the April 2014 photo. The mature mangrove trees have not recovered from the storm.  

June 2018 flooding along Elk Creek in Augusta, Montana

A 3-4m (10-12 ft) high outcrop of basalt lava, part of a broader lava flow. These flows were erupted about 300,000 years ago following basalt dike intrusions in a rear-arc region of northern California. The eruptions of three of these flows are thought to have taken place within several hundred years of each other.

A USGS technician walks through snowy terrain carrying an ADCP device on his back during record Midwest flooding in spring 2019.