Images

View east across Dixie Valley from the crest of the Stillwater Range, western Nevada. In the foreground are igneous rocks of an Oligocene caldera complex; bedrock in the Desatoya Mountains on the horizon is a slightly younger caldera complex. A major challenge for bedrock mapping is inferring what is in the subsurface between exposures like these.

The Bandelier Tuff near Los Alamos, New Mexico.  The Jemez Mountains, home to the Valles and Toledo calderas where the tuff originated, rise in the distance.  The tuff was hot and thick when it was deposited by caldera-forming eruptions 1.61 and 1.25 million years ago, and so it is welded in places, forming a dense and resistant rock.  USGS photo by M

A photograph taken near USGS 01034000 Piscataquis River at Medford, Maine on June 6, 2022 when the river was experiencing below average flow conditions as a result of a continued drought.

Tributary of Agashashok River located in the Noatak National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Recent observations from Arctic Alaska indicate that waters draining permafrost landscapes may be susceptible to iron and carbon mobilization following thaw.

An orange inflatable raft containing water sampling equipment sits on the shore of a recreational lake at Rapp Park and Recreation Area, Iowa.

A view of Isaac Hale Beach Park (also known as Pohoiki) in the lower Puna District on the Island of Hawai‘i. Lava from the 2018 Kīlauea lower East Rift Zone eruption, emplaced in late July 2018, is visible on the left. USGS photo taken during a helicopter overflight on May 12, 2022, by N. Deligne.

Mountain goat standing next to a mostly frozen, high-elevation lake in Glacier National Park, Montana. 

California bearpoppy (Arctomecon californica) in gypsum-based soil. The declining abundance of this species is being actively tracked in multiple states. Photo by Morgan Andrews, SBSC, USGS.

Biological carbon sequestration is the natural ability of life and ecosystems to store carbon. Forests, peat marshes, and coastal wetlands are particularly good as storing carbon. Carbon can be stored in plant tissue, such as long-lived tree bark or in extensive root systems. Microbes break down plant and animal tissue through decomposition.

Street flooding at high tide during a storm event on January 17, 2022, at Crescent Beach in Niantic, Connecticut.

Researchers associated with the Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center meet with potential stakeholders at the Pu'u Wa'awa'a State Forest Reserve in Hawai'i

Outstanding in the Field Episode 11 Artwork with microphone and headset graphic overlaying image of brown bears in a river.

Kudzu (genus Pueraria) is an invasive vine introduced to the United States from southeast Asia. 

An established monitoring site to assess soil recovery in a chaparral ecosystem that burned in the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex Fire.

Low water drought conditions at Folsom Lake, California, on June 23, 2021. Photo by Florence Low / California Department of Water Resources.

Big sagebrush landscape under blue skies in northeast Utah. Photo by Steve Hanser (USGS)

Mangroves grow along the coast in La Parguera, Lajas, Puerto Rico. Mangroves help protect the coast during storms.

Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge lies at the southern end of Ruby Valley in northeast Nevada. For more information visit the Ruby Lake NWR website.

View of Klamath Lake as seen by a USGS Hydrologic Technician in the field. Photo provided by Justin Willhite.

Sunset on Lake Ontario aboard the USGS Great Lakes Science Center’s R/V Kaho. Photo credit: Thomas SanFilippo, USGS.

Shrubland that has been grazed near Boulder Mountain, Utah, during sunset, September 2021. Photo by Shannon Lencioni, SBSC, USGS.