Images

Sarah Frey, a Northwest Climate Science Center graduate fellow at Oregon State University, records information during a point count at the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon.

Red-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda) and chick.

Red-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda) flying.

USGS Research Geographer Dr. Prasad Thenkabail and field assistant Sam Chaiya record the location and growth stage of a large rice paddy with a tablet in Na Yai Am District, Chanthaburi Province, Thailand.

Photomicrograph of sample 09RDWES301 - an andesite collected during the Redoubt 2009 eruption. A rock thin section is created by gluing a small piece of rock onto a glass slide, then grinding it down to a thickness of 30 microns (the average human hair is about 100 microns in diameter) so that light shines through it when examined under the microscope.

This is a sample of rutile, one of the primary mineral sources of titanium. While as a metal, titanium is well known for corrosion resistance and for its high strength-to-weight ratio, approximately 95% of titanium is consumed in the form of titanium dioxide (TiO₂), a white pigment used in paints, paper, and plastics.

These two minerals are apophyllite and prehnite. Both apophyllite, the clear crystals, and prehnite, the green mineral, are primarily prized as collectors minerals. 

Sample provided by Carlin Green, USGS. Sample originated from Virginia Crushed Stone Quarry, Virginia, and is 4.6cm in size.

This sample is of the mineral cerussite, once an important source of lead for paints and pigments. With the phasing out of lead-based paints, cerussite is now mostly valued as a collectors mineral.

Sample provided by Carlin Green, USGS. Sample originated from Mibladen, Morocco, and is 5.6cm in size.

USGS scientists Brian Jaskula and Robert Ayuso collecting samples at Spor Mountain, Utah.

USGS scientists gathering samples for analysis at Spor Mountain, Utah.

Sand ridge morphology and bedform migration patterns offshore of Assateague Island

Sandy beach and cliffs at Moss Landing, California

Sarah Moy conducts radio telemetry on Argentine black-and-white tegus (Tupinambis merianae) in the Florida Everglades. USGS photo.

Schematic showing how sediment on the seafloor moves in response to a force created by the combined action of tides, ocean waves, and wind-driven currents.

JJ Thordsen (USGS) and a wireline operator retrieving downhole vacuum sampler from a characterization well near a CO2 injection well at Citronelle oil field, Alabama.

Researchers survey Elwha River elevation and depths. Clockwise from upper left: setting up a traditional survey instrument above the river; measuring river depths from a kayak with sonar and GPS; walking the beach with GPS backpacks; and determining offshore depths using a personal watercraft with GPS and sonar.

Mount Crillon in the backdrop during a multibeam bathymetry survey of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather Fault, offshore southeastern Alaska.

USGS Research Geologist Jessica Rodysill and USGS-NAGT Student Intern Kristen Steele inspect a sediment core from Bearsden Pond near the Fredericks Hall fault, one of three subsidiary faults that broke in response to slip along the main Quail fault on 23 August 2011 during the M5.8 earthquake.  This research is a collaborative project between the USGS Land Use

Sentinel 2 image, China's Tian Shan mountains

Photograph from pole-mounted camera, looking west across the Skagit River delta and one of several large sediment fans that are moving 1-2 meters per day across the tidal flats. These fans threaten to bury the last intact stands of eelgrass in Skagit Bay, an important rearing habitat for juvenile salmon, crab, and other marine wildlife.

Scanning Electron Microscope backscatter image of legacy steelmaking slag from the Calumet region, Chicago, Illinois, showing silicate minerals, some of which may have acid-neutralizing potential.