Images

This daguerreotype image, captured in 1855 by Hugo Stangenwald, is the earliest known photograph of Kīlauea Volcano. Although scratched and faded, the 161-year-old photo shows a line of steaming vents across the floor of Kīlauea's summit caldera as viewed from a location near today's Volcano House Hotel. The caldera rim is visible in the lower third of the image.

USGS scientists work with academic collaborators from the University of Ghent (Belgium) to core earthquake-related submarine landslide deposits in Skilak Lake, Alaska.

Measuring discharge with ADCP on Mohawk River

Measuring discharge with ADCP on the Mohawk River, NY

Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center scientists aboard the RV Rafael prepare to launch the Mini SEABOSS just off of Nantucket!  The Mini SEABOSS collects samples, photos and video of the seafloor. 

Biological technicians, Beth Ogata, Kristina Young, and Natalie Day head back to base-camp after a day of monitoring vegetation and biological soil crusts in Canyonlands NP.

The Needles district of Canyonlands serves as a stunning backdrop to our study site in the high desert grassland of the Colorado Plateau. Researchers at Canyonlands Research Station are testing the effect of experimentally imposed altered precipitation regimes on plant reproductive success, mortality, and biomass.

Denis R. LeBlanc receiving his Distinguished Service Award on May 9, 2016, from Mike Connor, Deputy Secretary of the Interior (left) and Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Interior (right). 

To examine the influence of biological soil crusts in ecosystems (soil food webs, soil stability, soil nutrient cycles, and plant communities), Hilda Smith, biological technician, prepares to resample paired experimental plots where biological soil crusts were removed annually since 1995 or left intact at Arches NP.

Dr. Michael T. Meyer receiving his Distinguished Service Award on May 9, 2016, from Mike Connor, Deputy Secretary of the Interior (left) and Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Interior (right)

A heavily impacted off-road play area in Mancos Shale near the Book Cliffs is surveyed as a study site to assess dust production and quantify salinity and sediment in runoff.

Hilda Smith, biological technician with Canyonlands Research Station, monitors changes in biological soil crusts in response to experimental increases in temperature and altered precipitation patterns.

A variety of sampling methods are used to assess the movement of dust at different heights at Factory Butte. Dust samplers in the foreground are part of an ever-increasing network of more than 140 sites.

Dr. Jayne Belnap follows a narrow foot path through a diverse patch of biological soil crusts in an isolated area of Canyonlands NP that has never been exposed to grazing. Dr. Belnap has been studying biological soil crusts for more than 30 years.

A single narrow trail leads to research plots monitored by scientists at Canyonlands Research Station since the 1990s. This pristine area of biological soil crusts has never been grazed.

Silt fences were installed at paired locations on Mancos Shale to quantify sediment in runoff in disturbed and undisturbed areas.

Ed Grote, biological technician with Canyonlands Research Station, sets up soil moisture monitoring system for an experiment to assess the effect of rainfall variability on BLM property near the Needles district of Canyonlands.

A female Agassiz's desert tortoise at Joshua Tree National Park lounges in the entrance of her burrow, wearing a USGS radio.

This West Virginia disposal facility disposes of wastewaters from unconventional oil and gas production in Class II underground injection control wells

Water flowing on the Colorado River near Moab, Utah. 

The entire Colorado River Basin currently supports 50 million people, and that amount is expected to increase by 23 million between 2000 and 2030. A new USGS study shows more than half of the streamflow in the Upper Colorado River Basin originates as groundwater. 

NPS/USGS remote den camera. Fisher family denning in a mountain beaver burrow. Look carefully! Two fisher kits in front of their den site in a mountain beaver burrow (foreground) with mom (background left) watching on. The kits are about 4-5 months old.