Images

Sentinel-2A image, acquired June 2016, of the Southern Tibetan Plateau

Yellow Warbler nest in a tall shrub thicket habitat.  This photo was taken on the Seward Peninsula as part of the Changing Arctic Ecosystem Boreal-Arctic Transition Zone program.

Though difficult to photograph, aerial views showed that this open vent was but a small window into a large, hot cavity beneath Puʻu ʻŌʻō's northeast flank in Hawaii Inside, streams of lava from an unseen source (or sources) closer to the crater rim (visible at lower right) were cascading toward the upper left into unknown depths.

Male Arctic Warbler on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. This photo was taken on the Seward Peninsula as part of the Changing Arctic Ecosystem Boreal-Arctic Transition Zone program.

Phosphorite rock formed on the seafloor in Southern California.

Capitol Hill lawmakers requested an informational briefing on the documented impacts of climate change on inland fish and fisheries.

2016 Interns Rachel and Pat use a chainsaw to sample the fire history from a ponderosa pine stump. This is one of over 300 samples they will collect this year in an effort to create a reconstruction of the fire history of the Jemez Mountains.

USGS hydrologists Irene Fisher and Michael Como sample water quality on Long Island.

The red-footed booby is a seabird that ranges across tropical oceans of the world, including Hawaiʻi. And yes, these boobies do have startlingly bright red feet set off by their awesome blue bills. This bird is nesting at Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, an important seabird breeding site on Kauaʻi.

The red-footed booby is a seabird that ranges across tropical oceans of the world, including Hawaiʻi. And yes, these boobies do have startlingly bright red feet set off by their awesome blue bills. This bird is nesting at Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, an important seabird breeding site on Kauaʻi.

Spruce grouse on Mt. Washington, White Mountain National Forest, NH

Developing pallid sturgeon embryo.

Macro photo of a developing pallid sturgeon embryo. Developing embryo appears light gray

USGS scientists preparing for filming with BBC/PBS documentary crew making "The Great Yellowstone Thaw"

USGS scientist Joseph Levitt secured the new buoy, equipped to monitor water quality, at Weirs Beach on Lake Winnepesaukee, New Hampshire in June 2016. Photo: Sanborn Ward, USGS

A massive wildfire on the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia has consumed nearly 600,000 acres of boreal forest and tundra since late May 2016.

The map on sheet 7 shows “potential” marine benthic habitats in the Monterey Canyon and Vicinity map area, representing a substrate type, geomorphology, seafloor process, or any other attribute that may provide a habitat for a specific species or assemblage of organisms.

This rapidly moving ‘A‘ā lava flow was one of several that advanced down the west flank of Mauna Loa during the volcano's 1950 eruption. The massive flow, tens of meters (yards) high, traveled from the Southwest Rift Zone vent to the ocean, a distance of about 18 km (11 mi), in around 18 hours.

Scientists Andrew Ramey, Bjorn Olsen, and Jonas Bonnedahl (L to R) setting a trap for gulls at the Soldotna landfill in June 2016.

In June, USGS scientists deployed a new high tech buoy that will help determine when the water is safe for swimming at popular Weirs Beach on New Hampshire's Lake Winnepesaukee. Photo: Richard Kiah, USGS.

The USGS monitors water quality at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Empire, Michigan.