Multimedia Gallery

During a recent dive on the New England Seamount chain off the North Atlantic coast, researchers aboard the NOAA Ocean Exploration Expedition, North Atlantic Stepping Stones, discovered a marine geological feature known as a ferromanganese (Fe-Mn) nodule field in the saddle between two peaks of Gosnold Seamount. These seamount-hosted nodules were an exciting find, since Fe

One of the most cratered landscapes on Earth is part of the Nevada Desert called Yucca Flat. Landsat 8's near-infrared and short wave infrared imaging shows the pockmarked surface perhaps more reminiscent of other planetary bodies than Earth.

The craters are relics from decades of nuclear tests conducted by the U.S. government since the early Cold War. An aerial

Join USGS researchers Jason Chaytor and Kira Mizell as they virtually participate in a NOAA Ocean Exploration expedition to the depths of the North Atlantic.

The 2021 North Atlantic Stepping Stones: New England and Corner Rise Seamounts expedition runs from June 30 to July 29. At-sea and shore-based science teams will study deep-water habitats in the high seas,

Join USGS researchers Jason Chaytor and Kira Mizell as they virtually participate in a NOAA Ocean Exploration expedition to the depths of the North Atlantic.

The 2021 North Atlantic Stepping Stones: New England and Corner Rise Seamounts expedition runs from June 30 to July 29. At-sea and shore-based science teams will study deep-water habitats in the high seas,

The Earth As Art project began in the early 2000s, and its original intent remains the same: to produce images that do not look like satellite images at first glance. Earth As Art shows not only what satellites capture in the visible wavelengths of light you and I can see, but also what’s hiding in the invisible wavelengths that Landsat sensors can detect in the infrared

The Earth As Art project began in the early 2000s, and its original intent remains the same: to produce images that do not look like satellite images at first glance. Earth As Art shows not only what satellites capture in the visible wavelengths of light you and I can see, but also what’s hiding in the invisible wavelengths that Landsat sensors can detect in the infrared

From the boardwalk near Echinus Geyser (the largest acid geyser in the world), Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Scientist-in-Charge Mike Poland provides an update on activity in Yellowstone during the month of June. The Yellowstone Seismic Network located 445 earthquakes in the Yellowstone National Park region. Subsidence of Yellowstone Caldera, which has been ongoing since

A 1.1 mile long 509 foot tall concrete dam spanning the Blue Nile River is set to become the largest hydropower plant in Africa. Under construction since 2011, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is expected to produce around 16,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually when fully complete in 2023 providing power to 60% of Ethiopia's estimated 115 million people.

Welcome to the "The I Am A..." series. This is the eighth video in a series of USGS whiteboard animations that highlight USGS careers. The concept is to show "what society (or my mom) thinks I do" compared with "what I really do." One image captures a more whimsical representation of a "scientist" and the second demonstrates a more accurate representation of what we really

Yellowstone Volcano Observatory scientist-in-charge Mike Poland provides the YVO monthly update from the rim of Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon. The V-shaped gorge tells an amazing geologic story. About half a million years ago, a large rhyolite lava flow erupted. Over time, hot water and gases heated by the magma chamber rose through faults in the lava flow. And as it rose, it

If you're watching this video, you're probably using a lithium battery. Smartphones, tablets and laptops all rely on lithium metal to store energy. It comes from surface mines or brine ponds, found in places like Australia, China and the United States. One of the leading sources for this increasingly valuable resource is the South American nation of Chile.

On the

The LANDFIRE (LF) program is working to increase the frequency of product releases and to reduce the latency of the LF products by producing annual version releases that reflect data less than one year behind current conditions and represent data conditions homologous to the growth that one would expect in areas of change/disturbances up to the year when the products are

Why storm drains are essential to watershed management.
 

The USGS Coastal Change Hazards team works to identify and address the Nation’s coastal change hazards problems.  By integrating research, technical capabilities and applications, and stakeholder engagement and communications, the Coastal Change Hazards team develops robust and accessible coastal change assessments, forecasts, and tools that help improve the lives,

The USGS Coastal Change Hazards team works to identify and address the Nation’s coastal change hazards problems.  By integrating research, technical capabilities and applications, and stakeholder engagement and communications, the Coastal Change Hazards team develops robust and accessible coastal change assessments, forecasts, and tools that help improve the lives,

Hydrologic Technician Sara Weaver is making a discharge measurement on Lamprey River below Wiswall Dam.
 

In late March of 2021, just four miles from the edge of South Dakota's second-largest city, two wildfires sparked by human activity burned through a section of the Black Hills.

The Schroeder fire began on March 29. It was fueled by high winds and dry conditions, spreading rapidly across more than 2000 acres, forcing the evacuation of neighborhoods and businesses.

In the past, users spent 80% of their time downloading and preparing Landsat data to be processed. With Landsat in the cloud, you can get direct access to stream the Landsat archive without the need to download large amounts of files, by leveraging the Cloud Optimized Geotiff, or "COG". COGs are just like the Geotiff that you're used to only unpackaged and internally tiled

The US Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observation and Science Center, or "EROS" archive’s data from the LandSat satellites which have been in operation from 1972 to the present day. EarthShots presents environmental changes using Landsat images. 
 

The USGS New England Water Science Center features Alexander Bissell in their Center Stage Video Series. He talks about a special project he worked on and his work in water quality. Alexander also discusses his experience in the

The USGS New England Water Science Center features Alexander Bissell in their Center Stage Video Series. He talks about a special project he worked on and his work in water quality. Alexander also discusses his experience in the

This video shows a California tiger salamander finding its way to an underpass designed to help amphibians and reptiles cross the road safely, with the help of a "turn-around" that helps guide the salamander back in the right direction as it travels away from the underpass. The salamander was caught on wildlife cameras at various points between the turn-around and the

We are the USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program. Our mission is to provide science for sustainable stewardship of Earth’s precious resources. We conduct research, quantify resources, work to understand ecosystems, and develop tools to ensure our Nation has the best information to manage resources and prepare for

We are the USGS Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program. Our mission is to provide science for sustainable stewardship of Earth’s precious resources. We conduct research, quantify resources, work to understand ecosystems, and develop tools to ensure our Nation has the best information to manage resources and prepare for

A small watershed restoration project proves that land farmed for half a century can be returned to a previous state. In 2002, Mike Osterholm bought 98 acres in northeastern Iowa, most of it annually tilled cropland. The land included the confluence of Duck Creek and Waterloo Creek. He observed soggy patches of ground during wet periods and marked the locations with flags

Have you ever wondered what (or who) inspired our employees to become scientists? This video, created for the 2021 Bring a Kid to Work Day event, asks that question of a handful of USGS scientists.
 

Have you ever wondered what it's like to work for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)? We asked a handful of our scientists what they love about their jobs. Here's what they had to say about that...
 

Welcome to the "The I Am A..." series. This is the seventh video in a series of USGS whiteboard animations that highlight USGS careers. The concept is to show "what society (or my mom) thinks I do" compared with "what I really do." One image captures a more whimsical representation of a "scientist" and the second demonstrates a more accurate representation of what we

The Bay of Fundy in Canada has a unique geography funneling the Atlantic Ocean into some of the world's highest tides. At some points the water level can rise and fall over forty feet. The water's edge at Minas Basin shown in these Landsat 8 images changes dramatically depending on the day and time. Because Landsat 8 passes over quickly, the imagery cannot reveal the

There are thousands of volcanic features distributed throughout the southwest United States, which are grouped together in volcanic fields. The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory monitors these volcanoes using a combination of techniques. While YVO hasn’t seen anything to suggest magma is on the move, the area is stretched and pulled apart to produce numerous tectonic

This video provides background on and shows the release of California red-legged frog tadpoles into a pond in San Diego County, CA on March 31, 2021. These tadpoles originated from a pond in the Sierra San Pedro Martir Mountains in Baja California, Mexico and were translocated as eggs to the USA on Feb 4, 2021 as part of a multi-national conservation team consisting of TNC

With existing USGS tools you can search for scenes, view thumbnail browse images of scenes, and download scene-based data, all derived from the USGS archive of scene-based products. Now that Landsat scene data has been unpacked and stored in the cloud, LandsatLook 2.0 can access that data and present it to users in ways that were not previously possible. Thanks to the

A mudslide near the 2020 Dolan Fire's ignition point chopped through a chunk of California's scenic State Highway 1 in late January. 

The Dolan Fire began near Big Sur on August 18th, 2020. It scarred nearly 125,000 acres before being fully contained in December. 

The damage is clear in false color Landsat 8 imagery from August and October. The scar is still

The Earth As Art project began in the early 2000s, and its original intent remains the same: to produce images that do not look like satellite images at first glance. Earth As Art shows not only what satellites capture in the visible wavelengths of light you and I can see, but also what’s hiding in the invisible wavelengths that Landsat sensors can detect in the infrared

The Earth As Art project began in the early 2000s, and its original intent remains the same: to produce images that do not look like satellite images at first glance. Earth As Art shows not only what satellites capture in the visible wavelengths of light you and I can see, but also what’s hiding in the invisible wavelengths that Landsat sensors can detect in the infrared

For five days in March of 2021, the Glen Canyon Dam released a historically low flow of 4,000 cubic feet per second into the Colorado River. The USGS took this opportunity to collect data in an attempt to verify the measurements being reported by the Lee’s Ferry gaging station, which showed a discrepancy between the amount of water being released at the dam and the water

An overview of LCMAP Collection 1 science products: Time of Spectral Change, and Spectral Change Magnitude products.

LCMAP Collection 1 science products include ten science products offering different perspectives and ways to study land change across the country through time. While each product can be used separately, they are complimentary and inform one another.

This video explains how streamgages are used to measure the height and flow, or speed, of streams. By monitoring the height and flow of streams, the people who manage water infrastructure can have advanced noted of when the water is rising and how fast it’s coming. This helps to prepare for flooding, mudslides, and other hazardous impacts that a lot of fast-moving water

Welcome to the "The I Am A..." series. This is the sixth video in a series of USGS whiteboard animations that highlight USGS careers. The concept is to show "what society (or my mom) thinks I do" compared with "what I really do." One image captures a more whimsical representation of a "scientist" and the second demonstrates a more accurate representation of what we really

The remote ice fields of southern Chile have seen some dramatic change over the past three decades; change made clear by Landsat's deep archive of imagery. In 1987, the terminus of Erasmo Glacier was at the end of a low sloping valley. By 2015 it had retreated almost 3 kilometers, and formed a water body referred to as a proglacial lake. The end of the glacier now lies

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, debunks the misconception that if Yellowstone were to erupt, it would be Armageddon. In fact, the most common form of eruptive activity at Yellowstone is a lava flow, and even those aren't that common. They happen only once every few tens of thousands of years. Learn more in this monthly overview of

Welcome to the "The I Am A..." series. This is the fifth video in a series of USGS whiteboard animations that highlight USGS careers. The concept is to show "what society (or my mom) thinks I do" compared with "what I really do." One image captures a more whimsical representation of a "scientist" and the second demonstrates a more accurate representation of what we really

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone Volcano during January 2021.
 

The visible impact of climate change on the Earth’s surface is often clearest in the Arctic’s receding glaciers and swelling glacial lakes. Southeastern Alaska’s Harlequin Lake is one of the fastest-growing in North America. These false color Landsat images show the rapidly-retreating Yakutat Glacier, which feeds the lake. Landsat can be used to illustrate the lake’s

Alaska's coastal and offshore waters provide foraging habitat for an estimated 100 million birds comprising more than 90 different species. Researchers at the USGS Alaska Science Center work in collaboration with many partner agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities and rehabilitation centers to investigate seabirds. USGS ecosystems research is focused on

On December 26th, 2004, a massive 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The third largest earthquake ever recorded lifted the sea floor several meters, causing tsunami waves to ripple out in all directions and race across the ocean. Banda Aceh bore the brunt of the waves just 15 to 20 minutes after the earthquake. Waves in some

The waves of sugar cane that once defined the Hawaiian island landscape of Maui, have slowly given way to non-native annual grasses in recent decades. Those grasses have become a fire hazard along the way.

The closure of central Maui's last large cane mill in 2016 opened up some 36,000 acres for new growth. Some of those acres burned in 2019 during one of the island