Images

Groundwater in aquifers between layers of poorly permeable rock, such as clay or shale, may be confined under pressure.

Puhimau thermal area has the largest naturally occurring population of the endangered plant, Portulaca sclerocarpa (marked by the blue flag in the photo), and is the site of National Park Service restoration efforts for this species.

This Sierra Marten was caught on wildlife camera in October. The camera was set up to study animal movement under a new road crossing structure known as the “toad road” in Sierra National Forest. The Sierra marten (Martes caurina sierra) is a mammal in the weasel family about the size of a house cat.

Fall time descends on Southwest Utah. The changing fall leaves coupled with blue skies and red rock backdrop make for a beautiful morning for a discharge measurement at the Coal Creek near Cedar City, Utah stream gage 10242000.

U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Tyler King helps a citizen volunteer test a water sample for dissolved oxygen as part of the 2019 Watershed Watch in the lower Boise River watershed of southwestern Idaho. Watershed Watch is an annual citizen science event sponsored by the City of Boise. The USGS is an event co-sponsor. 

USGS scientists Brandon Nasr, Jenna Hill, Nora Nieminski, and Jenny McKee removing a sediment-filled core liner from the jumbo piston core barrel with the picturesque northern California coastline in the background.

UCSC student Travis Alonghi and USGS scientist Danny Brothers deploying the Chirp sub-bottom profiler at sunset from M/V Bold Horizon.

The USGS Coastal and Estuarine Dynamics Group will be deploying a cross shore array at Pea Island, various intruments will be connected to the poles to measure oceanographic conditions

The Field trip guide to Mount St. Helens, Washington—Recent and ancient volcaniclastic processes and deposits is available in the USGS Publications Warehouse, at https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20175022E.

Geophysicist Sarah Conway, a member of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory's deformation team, readies a temporary GPS station during a campaign survey of benchmarks on Kīlauea Volcano to monitor changes in the ground surface. 

Adult Sage Thrasher waiting to deliver food to its nestlings.    

USGS scientists Nora Nieminski, Jenna Hill, and Brandon Nasr working to cap and secure a trigger core on deck. Trigger cores can provide important information about seafloor sediments just below the seafloor

The crew of research vessel Bold Horizon with USGS science crew prepare to launch the Chirp sub-bottom profiler off the west coast near northern California and southern Oregon.

From left to right: Ryan Toohey, Bernard TKTKTK, Jeremy Littell (AK CASC Lead Scientist), Malinda Chase (AK CASC Tribal Liaison), Philomena Keyes, and Victor Tonuchuk, Jr. at the Active Layer Network site in Kotlik, Alaska.

USGS scientists Pete Dal Ferro and Jenny McKee securing a recently collected jumbo piston core (JPC) on the back deck of M/V Bold Horizon for preliminary core processing.

Dale Griffin of the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center is interviewed about the links between Saharan dust and harmful algal blooms off the coast of Florida. 

Dr. Nora Nieminski is a research geologist and Mendenhall Fellow at the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California. She is pictured here, on board Marine Vessel Bold Horizon, with a piston core sample collected from the southern Cascadia subduction zone offshore of northern California/southern Oregon.

After recovery, the jumbo piston corer sits on the deck of research vessel Bold Horizon in its launch and recovery system. This muddy collar is removed to reveal the removable length of the core, which sits within a stiff plastic tube inside the metal tube.

USGS scientist Janet Watt making a shear vane measurement on a gravity core to understand how the seafloor responds to earthquake shaking.

Various members of the Kotlik (Querrullik) governance talking about environmental changes for the Building Resilience Project.

USGS marine technician Jenny McKee prepares the jumbo piston corer for launching off research vessel Bold Horizon off the coast of California and Oregon. The corer will collect sediment samples from the seafloor. Scientists will examine the sediment to determine its age, character, and distribution. This area off the west coast of the U.S.