Multimedia Gallery

Dr. Elizabeth Vanacore talks about the installation of temporary seismic stations in southwest Puerto Rico.

The Shishaldin Volcano on the eastern edge of Alaska's Aleutian Island chain erupted with activity in January of 2020. The eruption on the island of Unimak sent an ash cloud nearly 5 miles into the sky on January 7th, sparking ash alerts for aviators, mariners, and residents of nearby communities. Landsat 8 captured both day and night imagery of the event as it happened.

It's winter in the northern hemisphere, but in Antarctica, summer has just begun. At Zucchelli Station the summer solstice occurred on December 22nd, 2019 at 5:19pm local time. The high temperature that day was a balmy 34 degrees Fahrenheit. These images from Landsat 8 show the distinct difference in sun angles cause by the change in seasons. The September image is from

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone during 2019, with an emphasis on the month of December.

The smell of a fresh cut Christmas tree can evoke visions of majestic evergreen forests teeming with winter wildlife. In truth, more than half of U.S. Christmas trees come from farms in Oregon, North Carolina, or Michigan. Cut Christmas Trees area commodity, tracked by the U.S. Department of Agriculture just like corn or soybeans. These USDA aerial images show tree harvest

Fires burned across California in late 2019. Fall is the state's most dangerous season for wildfires, propelled by dry and windy conditions. In recent years however, the fall fire season has been starting earlier and ending later. A series of images from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites show the Kincade Fire in northern California. This fire started on

The USGS has developed Landsat-derived Level 2 and Level 3 science products that reduce the amount of time users spend on data processing and provide research quality, applications-ready information to monitor, assess and project how changes in the Earth's surface may affect communities and ecosystems. The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellites co-

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, describes activity at Yellowstone during the month of November 2019.

USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists Frank Younger and Patricia Nadeau talk about sampling the water at the bottom of Halemaʻumaʻu, a crater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano. The water appeared in July 2019 and has steadily risen since then. On October 26, 2019, an unoccupied aerial system (UAS) was used to collect a sample of the water to investigate its source

Wildfires burned across Lebanon in mid-October, 2019. A pair of images taken just ten days apart by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2A satellite show the burn scar from one of the larger wildfires. North of the fire scar is the country's capital, Beirut. The October 18th image reveals several bright spots on the city's streets from numerous fires of a different type.

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, describes activity at Yellowstone during the month of October 2019
 

Retrospective interview with USGS Geophysicist Susan Hough about her early earthquake work during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The interview covers how the Cypress Structure collapse in Oakland, CA, served as a site response study for seismic research.
 

Retrospective interview with USGS Geophysicist Susan Hough about the collapse of the Nimitz Freeway (known as the Cypress Structure) in Oakland, CA, during the October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and how the first responders reacted to the event.
 

This is an Audio Described version of this video. Audio Descriptions are provided for visually impaired audiences. 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

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

An earthquake and tsunami in March of 2011 leveled cities and left 18,000 people dead along the east coast of Japan. The government responded with a plan to build hundreds of sea walls in hopes of protecting coastal communities from future disasters. Rikuzentakata was among the cities fortified after the tragedy. It was nearly destroyed by the tsunami and that damage is

On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 pm a magnitude M6.9 earthquake struck near Loma Prieta, California. It was a tragic reminder of the destructive power of earthquakes. However, it was also a watershed moment in seismic research. 30 years later, we revisit the earthquake through the eyes of the scientists who experienced it. And studied it. These are their stories. In Part 4 (of

On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 pm a magnitude M6.9 earthquake struck near Loma Prieta, California. It was a tragic reminder of the destructive power of earthquakes. However, it was also a watershed moment in seismic research. 30 years later, we revisit the earthquake through the eyes of the scientists who experienced it. And studied it. These are their stories. In Part 3 (of

On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 pm a magnitude M6.9 earthquake struck near Loma Prieta, California. It was a tragic reminder of the destructive power of earthquakes. However, it was also a watershed moment in seismic research. 30 years later, we revisit the earthquake through the eyes of the scientists who experienced it. And studied it. These are their stories. In Part 2 (of

On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 pm a magnitude M6.9 earthquake struck near Loma Prieta, California. It was a tragic reminder of the destructive power of earthquakes. However, it was also a watershed moment in seismic research. 30 years later, we revisit the earthquake through the eyes of the scientists who experienced it. And studied it. These are their stories. In Part 1 (of

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, describes activity at Yellowstone during the month of September 2019.
 

USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists Matt Patrick and Jim Kauahikaua talk about the water that appeared at the bottom of Halemaʻumaʻu, a crater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano, in July 2019 and continues to rise today. They address why it appeared, how it’s monitored, and its potential hazards.
 

Abnormally high spring rainfall and subsequent flooding in the Midwest had a season-long impact on cropland production. In these Landsat images of South Dakota growing vegetation is shown as green and unplanted areas appear pink. The difference between 2018 and 2019 is striking.

A designation of "prevented planting" is given to unplanted acres as a signal to crop

In July, satellite imagery from Landsat 8 captured a major melting event in Greenland. 

Phenology – the timing of life cycle events in plants and animals and their relationship to climate - is a key component of life on earth. This video introduces the USA National Phenology Network (www.usanpn.org) - a USGS funded, national network that exists to collect, store, and share information about phenology. Scientists, managers,

Phenology – the timing of life cycle events in plants and animals and their relationship to climate - is a key component of life on earth. This video introduces the USA National Phenology Network (www.usanpn.org) - a USGS funded, national network that exists to collect, store, and share information about phenology. Scientists, managers,

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, describes activity at Yellowstone during the month of August 2019.
 

Research Physical Scientist Dean Gesch shares an overview of USGS/EROS surveying efforts in the mangrove forests of Pohnpei.
 

Daytime and nightime imagery from Earth-observing satellites reveal dramatic changes in North Dakota during the Bakken oil boom.
 

During Aug. 4-8, 2019, U.S. Geological Survey women scientists, university researchers and Mount St. Helens Institute staff led 25 middle-school girls from Washington and Oregon in the fifth annual “GeoGirls” outdoor volcano science program at Mount St. Helens, Washington.
 

Iceland had 269 named glaciers as of the year 2000 but ice has retreated in the face of warming temperatures. By 2014, OK Glacier in western Iceland had lost so much mass that it was no longer considered one at all. Icelanders now refer to it simply as OK, the name of the volcano upon which it rests.
 

Mule deer are an important part of the Western landscape and are coveted among big-game hunters throughout the country. These animals draw outdoor enthusiasts to states, such as Wyoming, where nearly 800,000 people hunted, fished, and viewed wildlife, and contributed $1.1 billion to the state’s economy. Balancing a growing infrastructure in the west that includes housing

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, describes activity at Yellowstone during the month of July 2019.

Satellite imagery shows the rupture and shifting of land near Ridgecrest, CA from the July 2019 earthquakes.
 

US Navy Captain Paul Dale discusses the collaborative efforts between the USGS and Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake after the Ridgecrest earthquake sequence. 
 

Science is done by those who "do." Thank you women in science for all your contributions to USGS and the sciences, as a whole.
 

Before landing on the surface of the moon in 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin needed a training ground that matched their destination's cratered surface.

In the U.S., that turned out to be northern Arizona. Starting in 1967, the U.S. Geological Survey used hundreds of pounds of dynamite to blast holes into the surface of ancient lava fields south of

A Landsat satellite image captured the flooding in Dell Rapids, SD in the Spring of 2019. It's remarkably similar to an aerial photograph of flooding 50 years earlier. 
 

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, describes activity at Yellowstone during the month of June, 2019.
 

The Marsh Arabs of southeastern Iraq have spent millennia traversing the waterways at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The recent history of those wetlands, however, has been one of forced loss and uneven recovery. 

The marshes once stretched across nearly 5,800 square miles. This Landsat 5 image from 1986 shows lush vegetation and dark waters both

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, describes activity at Yellowstone during the month of May, 2019.
 

Global Mapper is a software package for visualizing, analyzing, manipulating, and exporting a wide variety of GIS data. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to open LiDAR point cloud LAS data files in Global Mapper, turn on all or specific LiDAR point Classes, visualize the data in 2-D and 3-D, and change the visualization using toolbar functions.
 

USGS Storm Tide Sensors are specialized scientific instruments used to measure the depth and duration of storm surge during coastal storms. The data these sensors collect before, during and after a storm will help public officials assess storm damage, and improve computer models used to forecast storm surge and coastal change. FEMA and other federal, state and local

USGS scientists are studying water-quality conditions and harmful algal blooms—known as HABs—in Owasco, Seneca and Skaneateles lakes in New York. The USGS monitoring effort will provide a better understanding of HAB growth and severity and allow for near instantaneous detection of changing water-quality conditions that might be indicative of HAB development. This will

Scientists with the USGS Yellowstone Volcano Observatory use satellite and aerial imagery to map hot springs, geothermal vents, and geysers at Yellowstone National Park. They recently found an entirely new thermal area miles from the nearest trailhead. Landsat 8's thermal infrared sensors captured the change in a nighttime image from April of 2017. Aerial images reveal a

A short video on why the ocean is salty.