Multimedia Gallery

The mountains that encompass Hawaii's Limahuli Garden and Preserve.

An endangered Olulu plant, also known as Cabbage on a stick.

A roadway through the lower valley of the Limahuli Garden and Preserve.

This photograph, taken from a hiking trail, depicts some of the high tropical mountains and cliffs seen in the Hawaiian islands.

A Pandanus tree with prominent aerial roots on a cliff-top at Limahuli Garden and Preserve.

USGS researchers collect surface water from a rice field weir box using trace-metal clean techniques.

Waimea canyon, famously dubbed the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" by Mark Twain, with its eroded cliffs, mists, and tropical montane vegetation.

Waimea canyon, famously dubbed the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" by Mark Twain, with its eroded cliffs, mists, and tropical montane vegetation.

Waimea canyon, famously dubbed the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" by Mark Twain, with its eroded cliffs, mists, and tropical montane vegetation.

USGS researchers sampling sediment from newly flooded rice fields, during growing season.

Just after sunrise on a beach in eastern Maui.

Just after sunrise on a beach in eastern Maui.

Just after sunrise on a beach in eastern Maui.

Hawaiian Monk Seal on a sandy beach near the western tip of the Hawaiian island of Moloka´i.

Unidentified species of baby spiders hatching and dispersing.

Cratered cones near Hephaestus Fossae, Mars. This might look at first glance like a cinder cone, but it is more likely an impact crater. Using the shadow, one can tell that its floor is at a lower elevation than the surrounding landscape. A cinder cone would rise above the landscape. 

Cinder cones (otherwise known as scoria cones) are the most common type of volcano

Lava islands, vegetated seaside cliffs, a black sand beach, and waves breaking against the steep ragged shoreline of a Hawaiian bay.

Lava islands, vegetated seaside cliffs, a black sand beach, and waves breaking against the steep ragged shoreline of a Hawaiian bay.

Lava islands, vegetated seaside cliffs, a black sand beach, and waves breaking against the steep ragged shoreline of a Hawaiian bay.

Lava islands, vegetated seaside cliffs, a black sand beach, and waves breaking against the steep ragged shoreline of a Hawaiian bay.

This hiking trail, Pandanus trees, an understory of Beach naupaka, and crashing waves characterize the windy cliff-tops along this jagged coast of solidified lava in Hawaii.

Lava islands, vegetated seaside cliffs, a black sand beach, and waves breaking against the steep ragged shoreline of a Hawaiian bay.

A forest on an old seaside lava flow vegetated almost entirely by just two plant species: Pandanus trees with an understory of Beach naupaka.

A hiking trail along seaside lava cliffs. Trail winds through an unusual Pandanus forest shared with an understory of Beach naupaka.

Lava islands, vegetated seaside cliffs, a black sand beach, and waves breaking against the steep ragged shoreline of a Hawaiian bay.

USGS scientist in a boat on the Hudson River

USGS Oklahoma Water Science Center Hydrologists Monica Allen and Shana Mashburn demonstrate methods for processing water-quality samples at Tribal training class at Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.

USGS Oklahoma Water Science Center Hydrologist Shana Mashburn and Tribal Environmental Technician seine for fish and insects during Tribal training class near Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.

Drilling for mineral resources near Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Climate change combined with overlapping high-intensity land uses are likely to create conditions detrimental to the recreation economy, wildlife habitat, water availability and other resources in hyper-arid landscapes, or drylands, in the future, according to a paper published in Ecosphere

Bar-tailed Godwit tagged Z0 near Naknek, Alaska

Bar-tailed godwit "Z0" instrumented with an implanted Argos satellite transmitter (note dorsally exposed antenna) to facilitate aerodynamics during the species non-stop flights across the Pacific Ocean. This bird was tracked from her non-breeding area in New Zealand to a spring staging area in the Yellow Sea (10,000 km in 8.8 days, non-stop), then to a breeding area in

Biologists checking a fyke net as part of a fish project for the Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation.  Otoliths were extracted and read for ages from the fish captured in this fyke net.

Biologists checking a fyke net as part of a fish project for the Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation.  Otoliths were extracted and read for ages from the fish captured in this fyke net.

USGS hydrologists deploy fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing equipment in Ashumet Pond, Mashpee, Massachusetts. Fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing is an emerging technology that has promise for characterizing estuary-aquifer interaction. The technology evaluation was conducted by the USGS Office of Groundwater Branch of Geophysics in 2007. To learn more

A surface expression of geothermal activity.

Birds found in and around the Salton Sea, California.

Birds found in and around the Salton Sea, California.

Birds found in and around the Salton Sea, California.

Birds found in and around the Salton Sea, California.

Birds found in and around the Salton Sea, California.

Birds found in and around the Salton Sea, California.

Birds found in and around the Salton Sea, California.

Development along the mouth of the Elk River, a tributory of the Chesapeake Bay.

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists collecting bed-sediment samples from Suwanee Creek, Gwinnett County, Georgia, on May 23, 2007. 

Sunset Salton Sea, California.

Bed sediment sampling, Suwanee Creek, Gwinnett Co, Georgia

An inclined plane trap on the Kwethluk River. Biologists are capturing chum salmon juvenile smolt.