Images

A Boreal Chickadee with a mildly deformed beak.

A male spectacled eider following implantation of a satellite transmitter in the Colville River delta in June 2009. After breeding numbers of spectacled eiders, a large sea duck, declined by 96 percent at a primary breeding area in Alaska, the species was listed as threatened.

Glacier Bay, Alaska, dive team.

A severely emaciated Common Murre carcass collected to determine the cause of death following a massive die-off of murres in 2015/2016.  Prince William Sound

Biologists walk the beach counting Common Murre carcasses following a massive die-off of murres in 2015/2016. Prince William Sound.

A freshly deceased Common Murre carcass recovered following the massive die-off of murres in 2015/2016. Cochrane Bay, Prince William Sound

A freshly deceased Common Murre carcass recovered following the massive die-off of murres in 2015/2016.  Cochrane Bay, Prince William Sound.

Dead Common Murres found on the beach in Cochrane Bay, Prince William Sound on Jan 10, 2016. These birds were part of the large die-off of Common Murres across the Gulf of Alaska in 2015-2016.

A dead Common Murre found on the beach in Prince William Sound on Jan 7, 2016. This bird was part of the large die-off of Common Murres across the Gulf of Alaska in 2015-2016. 

On remote Barter Island, Alaska, Bruce Richmond (right) and Cordell Johnson drill into 500-foot-thick permafrost using a handheld drill with a 2-inch drill bit—a challenging task! It can take 3 hours to drill nearly 20 feet down.

David Pelunis-Messier and Milton Roberts navigating on the Tanana River, a main tributary of the Yukon River. The two are taking part in the Yukon River permafrost study. 

Study region along the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault offshore southeastern Alaska. Rectangles show locations of the two USGS-led marine geophysical surveys in May and August 2015. The third cruise was offshore Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, and southern Alaska in September 2015.

Enlarged from previous figure, this map shows a string of basins along the fault and offset of the south wall of the Yakobi Sea Valley. Line A–B marks the location of multichannel seismic-reflection profile.

Researcher Carol Hasburgh taking winter water chemistry samples on the Yukon River for a permafrost loss study. 

USGS scientist Layne Adams places a radiocollar on a sedated large bull caribou in Denali National Park, Alaska. 

These clams (Calyptogena spp.) were discovered in about 1000 meter-deep waters off the southern tip of Alaska near a 250-meter-high cone rising from the seafloor and 10 kilometers from the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault.

Seafloor trace of the Queen Charlotte-Fairweather fault (from top left to bottom right) offsets the edge of the Yakobi Sea Valley off southeast Alaska. This 700-mile-long fault has generated large earthquakes in the past. Future shocks—and tsunamis—could threaten coastal communities in the U.S. and Canada. (Color-coded depths, in meters, were mapped in 2015.)

Yukon River freezing up at Pilot Station, AK

Whitefish drying on a fish rack in Pilot Station, AK, in the Yukon River Basin. 

Heading out to do field work for a permafrost loss study in the Yukon River Basin. 

Geologist and cataclastic shear zones in the Melozitna granite in the Ruby batholith. This granite contains abundant monazite and high levels of thorium and rare earth elements.