Unified Interior Regions
California
The Southwest Region includes California, Nevada, and Arizona. The Regional Office, headquartered in Sacramento, provides Center oversight and support, facilitates internal and external collaborations, and works to further USGS strategic science directions.
States L2 Landing Page Tabs
Agriculture field in California
An agriculture field in California taken during field work for the Trends Lancover Change project.
PubTalk 8/2004 — Precipice of Survival
What is the Future of the Southern Sea Otter?
Featuring the new award-winning USGS video Precipice of Survival. The Southern Sea Otter by Stephen Wessells, introduced and discussed by sea otter researchers including Alisha H. Kage and M. Tim Tinker, Research Biologists
- The southern subspecies of sea otter, Enhydra lutris
PubTalk 7/2004 — Secrets in Stone
The Role of Paleomagnetism in the Evolution of Plate Tectonic Theory Video Presentation
Presentation of the award-winning USGS video "Secrets in Stone" (35 minutes), introduced by Jack Hillhouse, Research Geophysicist, and followed by a tour of the USGS Paleomagnetics Laboratory
- Crucial discoveries in the early 1960.s were made
PubTalk 6/2004 — From Strawberry Fields to the Ozone Layer
The Methyl Bromide Story
By Laurence G. Miller, Biogeochemist
- Methyl bromide (CH3Br) is an important agricultural pesticide widely used in growing strawberries and other field crops
- Methyl bromide---much of it from natural sources---is one of the gases contributing to destruction of Earth's ozone layer
- No
PubTalk 5/2004 — Delta Revival: Restoration of a California Ecosystem
Video presentation and discussion
Ecologist Jim Cloern will introduce the video Delta Revival, produced jointly by the USGS and the CALFED Bay-Delta Authority.
USGS Scientists wil answer your questions about this documentary, which shows:
- biologists, chemists, physical scientists, and engineers working together
California Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi)
Squirrel stepping out from it's ground burrow.
California Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi)
Squirrel stepping out from it's ground burrow.
PubTalk 4/2004 — Science, Society, and the Survey
50 Years of the USGS in Menlo Park
By David G. Howell, Geologist
Hear about some of the scientific highlights from 1954 to 2004 --
- The search for strategic minerals
- Exploring the high seas
- The birth of astrogeology
- Advancing the theory of plate tectonics
- From topo maps to digital GIS
PubTalk 3/2004 — Mapping the American West
Clarence King and the 40th Parallel Survey
By James G. Moore, Geologist
- After completing a geology degree at Yale and coming West in a wagon train, Clarence King worked with the California Geological Survey and was in the field party that discovered Mount Whitney
- King led the United States Geological Exploration of the
PubTalk 2/2004 — Life and Death of Hawaiian Coral Reefs
New Studies Track the Life Cycle of Maui's Changing Reefs
By Michael E. Field, Marine Geologist & Curt D. Storlazzi, Coastal Oceanographer
- How are coral reefs changing, and why is it a concern?
- Agents of change on Maui's reefs have both natural and human causes
- Coral eggs and sperm released during
California Red-legged Frog
California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii) surfaces in a pond in Point Reyes National Seashore, CA.
PubTalk 1/2004 — Roving Around Mars
Adventures in Exploring the Red Planet
By Devon M. Burr & Michael H. Carr, Planetary Geologists
- January 2004 will see two NASA rovers land on Mars to analyze rock and soil and measure environmental conditions
- By January, a European Mars probe and a Japanese orbiter should also be studying the planet's
Providing a plan to help resource managers restore the Bering Sea and North Pacific ecosystem is a task research scientist Jim Estes of the U.S. Geological Survey will pursue during the next four years with funding help from a 1999 Pew Marine Conservation fellowship of $150,000.
It is well known that fire suppression in forests has led to an increase in catastrophic forest fires. The same has been assumed to be true for fire suppresion in shrublands. However, a recent USGS study has found that urban sprawl -- not fire suppression -- is largely responsible for the wildfires that occur in the shrublands of southern and central-coastal California.
Maps and other products of the U.S. Geological Survey will be on display,for sale and as free handouts, at the USGS booth at the Sunset Magazine open house, this weekend, May 15 and 16.
The source of tarballs in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, new views of the seafloor of Monterey Bay and new data on the San Gregorio fault are the focus of three presentations by U.S. Geological Survey scientists at the Pacific Section Meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, in Monterey.
As United States Geological Survey (USGS) researchers skim the surface of the ocean in a small boat near Long Beach, a new never-before-seen view of Los Angeles is revealed.
U.S. Geological Survey scientists of the Western Ecological Research Center will report on the effects of exotic animals on native plants in Channel Islands National Park at the 5th California Islands Symposium, in Santa Barbara, Calif., Mar. 29-Apr. 1.
Chemical contamination in San Francisco Bay has decreased since enactment of the Clean Water Act in 1970, but the bay is still suffering from "contaminant stress," according to a a U.S. Geological Survey chemist who has been analyzing the bay’s waters for 30 years.
From the Gold Rush of 1849 through the 1960’s, California produced about 3,300 tons of gold, or about one-third of all U.S. gold production, but it left a legacy of detrimental environmental effects whose damage may never be fully determined, according to Roger Ashley of the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif.
The environmental effects of the California gold rush and the effects of earthquakes on the urban environment are two of the topics that will be covered by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey at this week’s annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, Calif., Jan. 21-26, 1999.
On January 23, 1999, U.S. Geological Survey scientists Gladys Cotter, Charles van Riper III, and Henry J. Moore II will be inducted as Fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) during its annual meeting in Anaheim, California.
Sitting in the darkened cab of a pick-up truck on a California Central Valley back road, research biologist Joe Fleskes of the USGS Western Ecological Research Center strained to hear the faint "beep beep beep" from his radio-tracking receiver. Somewhere out in the foggy night, the radio signal was emanating from a small transmitter worn by one of 320 ducks and geese fitted with these monitoring d
A thirty-foot-long exhibit, and several presentations will focus on changes along the west coast of the US during the 1997-98 El Nino at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, scheduled for Dec. 6-10 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California.