Videos

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...
 

The lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u Crater, at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano, remains active. This video is shown at 20x speed and shows the lava supplying the lake from the western fissure. 
 

The lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u Crater, at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano, remains active. This video is shown at 30x speed and shows the lava supplying the lake from the western fissure, with scattered crustal foundering across the lake surface. 
 

The lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u Crater, at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano, remains active. This video shows spattering from a small vent at the western fissure. 
 

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologists visited the east rim of Halema‘uma‘u Crater to make observations of Kīlauea's summit lava lake and survey the eastern portion of the crater. This video compilation shows different aspects of the lake activity in the western portion of the crater. 

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologists conducted a routine helicopter overflight of the lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u Crater, at the summit of Kīlauea. Active surface lava remains limited to a small area in the western portion of the lake, with the eastern portion solidified at the surface.

KPcam webcam on the flank of Mauna Loa looks south towards the summit of Kīlauea to monitor the gas plume from the active lava lake. This time-lapse video shows a typical day for the summit plume. Clear views in the night and morning show the low, ground-hugging plume carried to the southwest by the tradewinds.

This video shows the inlet along the western margin of the lava lake in Halema‘uma‘u Crater, at the summit of Kīlauea. The lava stream was moving slowly but steadily, and was emerging beneath a portion of crust attached to the lake margin. The video is shown at 10x speed.
 

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor is located aboard NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor is aboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (S-NPP) satellite.

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.

The good news is that volcanoes usually change behavior before they erupt, in ways that are detectable by monitoring instruments.

The U.S. Geological Survey is the science research agency for the U.S. Department of the Interior. We conduct research on the natural hazards that threaten lives and livelihoods around the country.

This is an animation showing the changing conditions of USGS streamgages from January 1, 2021 to March 31, 2021. The river conditions shown range from the driest condition seen at a gage (red open circles) to the wettest (blue closed circles). A purple outer ring around a gage indicates it is flooding.

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.

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. 

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.

The lava lake remains active in Halema‘uma‘u Crater, at the summit of Kīlauea. This video shows the inlet where lava from the western fissure is supplied to the lake. The motion of the lava stream is sluggish, and this video is shown at 20x speed.
 

Title: A Jaguar's Field of Dreams - If you build it, they will come (& other lessons from the U.S. - Mexico border) By: Laura M.

Throughout most of human existence, we haven't known much about how volcanoes work. Because of their immense power, they have terrified and fascinated us, and remain places of great spiritual importance for many people. The lack of knowledge about volcanoes has sometimes resulted in tragic and deadly disasters.

Digitize an Analog Map With GeMS, Part B1 - How to create an empty GeMS geodatabase in ArcMap, digitize contacts from a scanned geologic map, and create map unit polygons.

Digitize an Analog Map With GeMS, Part B2 - Digitize orientation points and check topology.