Videos

The Staten Island Industrial Park in New York is now home to warehouse and distribution centers for companies like Amazon and IKEA, seen here in imagery from Europe's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite. But aerial imagery from 1995 shows large oil storage tanks in the same location.

This is an animation showing the changing conditions of USGS streamgages from January 1, 2020 to March 31, 2020. The conditions shown range from the driest condition seen at a gage (red open circles) to the wettest (blue closed circles). There is also a purple ring added to indicate gages that are flooding.

This animation shows a rotating globe of the new Unified Geologic Map of the Moon with shaded topography from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA). This geologic map is a synthesis of six Apollo-era regional geologic maps, updated based on data from recent satellite missions. It will serve as a reference for lunar science and future human missions to the Moon.

The study of the Earth's natural life cycles is known as phenology. Scientists track the emergence of shoots and leaves, blooming flowers and pollinators as phenological signals every spring. Spring has sprung earlier than usual in much of the United States this year.

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone during March 2020.

 

National Hydrography Advisory Call:

This video is a brief but informative introduction to the life and work of Florence Bascom, the first woman hired by USGS! It describes the significance of her accomplishments at USGS and the legacy of her work beyond geology.

This timelapse sequence shows the water pond in Halema‘uma‘u Crater, at Kīlauea's summit, between November 1, 2019, and March 26, 2020. Over this time the water level rose approximately 14 meters (46 feet), equivalent to 67 cm (about 2 feet) per week. The timelapse shows one image per day (with a few cloudy images removed), and is looped several times.

Enhancing ecological connectivity - the degree to which landscapes facilitate the movement of the organisms within them - is a frequently recommended strategy for conserving wildlife populations into the future.

Antarctica has been the source for a host of fascinating satellite imagery in recent months. We've offered scenes from the southern solstice, images of icebergs adrift, and shots of pooling meltwater during some of the warmest days on record for the frozen continent. An international team of scientists onboard a U.S.

Stormy weather moved through the islands over the past day, producing snow at the higher elevations of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. This sequence shows the webcam images at the summit of Mauna Loa, and the variable weather throughout the day.

Tall and contiguous coastal dunes can substantially mitigate storm surge and flooding near our coasts. Understanding the position and height of dunes, as well as how these features change over time, is critical to the USGS mission of predicting impacts to coastal infrastructure and habitat caused by storms and hurricanes.

This Landsat 8 image from May 24th, 2017 shows an enthralling New Zealand landscape. Snow-capped mountain peaks, forests, farmland, and fog highlight the picturesque view of New Zealand's North Island. The scene was downloaded on March 9th, 2020 one of over 29,000 Landsat scenes downloaded worldwide that day. But this scene is special.

Landsat recently captured the most widespread meltwater pooling ever recorded on Antarctica's George VI Ice Shelf. Some melting is expected during the Antarctic summer, but the sheer extent of the stunning aqua ponds that have appeared amid the continent's warmest summer on record is remarkable.

Cattail (Typha) is an iconic emergent wetland plant found worldwide. By producing an abundance of wind-dispersed seeds, cattail can colonize wetlands across great distances, and its rapid growth rate, large size, and aggressive expansion results in dense stands in a variety of aquatic ecosystems such as marshes, ponds, lakes, and riparian areas.

Cattail (Typha) is an iconic emergent wetland plant found worldwide. By producing an abundance of wind-dispersed seeds, cattail can colonize wetlands across great distances, and its rapid growth rate, large size, and aggressive expansion results in dense stands in a variety of aquatic ecosystems such as marshes, ponds, lakes, and riparian areas.

Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone during February 2020.

 

This video introduces research that Florence Bascom Geoscience Center (FBGC) scientists are conducting on the 500,000 year history of Arctic sea ice to assess changes in weather, sea ice extent, temperature and ecosystems.

This video introduces research that Florence Bascom Geoscience Center (FBGC) scientists are conducting on the 500,000 year history of Arctic sea ice to assess changes in weather, sea ice extent, temperature and ecosystems.

This video explains how scientists from the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center research paleo-environmental wetland conditions and explain how studying these environments is valuable to better understand past changes and responses to disturbance, such as fire, sea-level rise

This video explains how scientists from the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center research paleo-environmental wetland conditions and explain how studying these environments is valuable to better understand past changes and responses to disturbance, such as fire, sea-level rise, and perm