Images

A new atlas named Landscapes of West Africa: A Window on a Changing World tells the story of transformations and trends across many lands in West Africa, including this look at the threat of human activities in the Okomu Forest Reserve in southern Nigeria.

A sonar-equipped personal watercraft mapping the bathymetry underwater near Santa Cruz, Calif.

Flood in 2017 along Carson River, Nevada. 

Home Zip Codes of Hunters Harvesting Deer in Dane, Iowa, Richland, and Sauk Counties in Wisconsin from 2016-2017

"Lab in a Suitcase" set up in the field to test samples for the fungus (Ceratocystis fimbriata) responsible for Rapid ‘Ōhi‘a Death.

Continued degassing from fumaroles at fissures on Kīlauea Volcano's lower East Rift Zone produce native sulfur crystals when sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide gases react and cool upon reaching the surface. The delicate sulfur crystals are 5–15 mm (0.2–0.6 in) long. USGS photos by A. Lerner, 2018.

USGS scientist Daniel Hoover mapping the beach at Santa Cruz with a GPS-equipped backpack unit.

This panoramic view of the 1935 Humu‘ula flow (black lava) on both sides of the Daniel K. Inouye Highway, which runs east to west in the saddle between Mauna Loa (snow-capped shield volcano at far left) and Mauna Kea (distant right), was taken from the top of Pu‘uhuluhulu. View is to the northwest. The top of Hualālai is visible in far distance (center).

USGS scientists readying a sonar-equipped boat to map the ocean bottom near Santa Cruz, Calif.

 USGS scientists setting up a lidar scanner on the pier to map the beach near Capitola, California.

USGS and USBR workers discuss important issues.

White laze plumes mark locations where lava enters the ocean over a broad area. An open lava channel flows into the ocean at the southern-most plume (middle) near the southern flow margin. The boat ramp at Pohoiki is about 940 m (0.58 mi) farther south of the flow margin. View is toward the west-southwest.

USGS research geologist Jon Warrick explains how his team applied structure-from-motion analysis to photos from the California Coastal Records Project to measure coastal change. Jon Warrick explains a “difference map” constructed from structure-in-motion data. Red areas indicate loss of material (erosion); blue areas show addition of material (deposition).

View of the Ohmmapper system electrodes being pulled behind a small truck in order to map the near surface geology of Sunflower County, Mississippi near the town of Shellmound.  Photo by Ben Miller, 2016

The upper part of the Tuul River Basin in Mongolia contains pristine water originating mostly from snowmelt. More information on this study is available at https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20161096.

Waterborne resistivity survey in progress on the Tallahatchie River, Leflore County, Mississippi.  GPS unit and depth sounder are visible attached to the front of the boat.  Photo by James R. Rigby, 2016

The above image shows Eastern Great Plans and Central Interior Appalachian landscape features spanning much of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana as depicted with a 100-meter resolution elevation model overlain with 1:2,000,000-scale hydrographic features.

Land subsidence contours showing vertical changes in land surface in the central San Joaquin Valley area, California, during January 8, 2008-January 13, 2010. The top graph illustrates elevation changes computed from repeat geodetic surveys along Highway 152 for 1972-2004.

Many flowing wells have been abandoned in the Ararat Valley in Armenia. Abandoned wells create environmental hazards (such as pathways for contamination from the land surface to reach the aquifer if well casing deteriorates in nonflowing wells) and continued depletion of the artesian aquifer from flowing wells.

Products of Structure-from-Motion applied to data collected by UAS in Black Beach, Falmouth, MA

Alaska Interior mountain range shot with snow capped mountains.