All Multimedia

A Grass Carp larva captured during a survey in the Maumee River, a Lake Erie tributary. Grass Carp are an invasive species that consume vegetation destroying habitat used by other species.

An aerial view of the prominent 1940 cinder-and-spatter cone on the floor of Mauna Loa's summit caldera. The cone, about 100 m (330 ft) high, was built during a 134-day-long eruption that began on April 7, 1940. Most of the caldera floor around the cone is covered by lava flows erupted in 1984.

Staudinger dissecting a dolphinfish at the Annual Ducks Fishing tournament in Morehead City, North Carolina. Credit: Joshua Snyder 

Miller collecting geospatial data as part of his dissertation research on drought resources in East Africa.

Miller interviewing Maasai pastoralists about how they have coped with drought amidst conservation and land use changes.

Mineral-laden water emerging from a hydrothermal vent on the Niua underwater volcano in the Lau Basin, southwest Pacific Ocean. As the water cools, minerals precipitate to form tower-like “chimneys.” Image taken during 2016 cruise “Virtual Vents.”  

Mining water withdrawals in 2015

Mount Shasta, a steep-sided Cascade Range stratovolcano in Northern California, looms above Little Glass Mountain, a thick obsidian flow erupted from the Medicine Lake shield volcano about 1,000 years ago. These are just two of the young volcanic areas monitored by the USGS California Volcano Observatory. USGS photo.

Geologic sections (C-C', D-D', and E-E') illustrating the general distributions and thicknesses of seismic stratigraphic units and major unconformities in the Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket study areas.

New Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Deputy Scientist-in-Charge David Phillips and his wife Francine Coloma with Japan's iconic Mt. Fuji in the background. 

NHD Twitter banner photo of lake surrounded by mountains

Twitter NHD Banner

A WHCMSC and WHOI team recovered six intermediate period ocean bottom seismographs from the continental slope offshore New England in Georges Bank. The instruments had been deployed for about ten months to record background, ambient seismic noise.

Fire Island is a 50-km long barrier island along the south shore of Long Island, NY. The island is comprised of seventeen year-round communities; federal, state, and county parks; and supports distinct ecosystems alongside areas of economic and cultural value.

Hundreds of alewife otoliths, all stored in separate vials, wait to be aged at the GLSC Lake Ontario Biological Station.

Overview of Water Quality in Principal Aquifers

Percentage Change in Population by State and Decade: 1980 - 1990 to 2000 - 2010. For information on confidentiality protection, nonsampling error, and definitions, see http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/doc/p194-171.pdf

 Photo collage of images from Fire Island showing dunes and beaches

The beach-dependent shorebirds project at the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center models current and future habitat availability for nesting shorebirds in an effort to map current and likely future habitat availability on a range of sites along the U.S. Atlantic coast.

Plot of ground motion as recorded by a GPS station at Kīlauea's summit (red) and the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō vent (blue) for the 8 months leading up to the 2018 eruption. Note the sharp increase indicating pressurization beginning in March. Image shows an aerial view of Halema‘uma‘u crater and the actively overflowing lava lake on April 23, 2018. 

When molten lava encroaches on grassland, forests, or other vegetated land, subsurface pockets of natural gas from the burning plant material can ignite, causing a blast known as a "methane explosion." To avoid this hazard, keep a safe distance—at least tens of yards—from the margin of an active lava flow in vegetated areas.