Unified Interior Regions

The Hector Mine earthquake that occurred Oct. 16, 1999, in the Mojave Desert east of Los Angeles, woke a lot of people up but injured no one and caused a minimal amount of property damage.

The rhododendrons and azaleas that create a spectacular display of color each year at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, will be at their peak for the next few weeks, and many of the exotic plants will be at their best when the USGS holds its triennial Open House, May 13 and 14, at the center at 345 Middlefield Road in Menlo Park.

The most acidic waters ever measured are percolating through an underground mine near Redding, Calif., according to scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey.

Recent rains may have made things unstable on some parts of San Bruno Mountain, south of San Francisco, but one fault the mountain doesn’t have is a fault; at least none that will cause any problems, according to scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey.

If certain employees of the U.S. Geological Survey are begging for used tennis balls, it must mean that something big is brewing. And it is.

On January 26, 1700, the largest earthquake known to have occurred in the "lower 48" United States, rocked Cascadia, a region 600 miles long that includes northern California, Oregon, Washington, and southern British Columbia.

The U.S. Geological Survey still needs a few good back yards. Beginning in January 2000, the USGS Earthquake Hazards Team, in cooperation the seismographic Station at UC Berkeley, will begin installing 60-70 seismograph stations in the core urban areas of San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley.

Holocene muds that cover the Santa Cruz, Calif., continental shelf have enough breaks to reveal traces of the San Gregorio fault, according to scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, who will present several papers relating to the side-scan sonar images that were obtained earlier this year.

The Moscone convention center will be alive with the sound of music, Thursday, Dec. 16, as U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Andrew Michael presents, "The Music of Earthquakes -- Waveforms of Sound and Seismology."

All offices of the U.S. Geological Survey, at 345 Middlefield Road in Menlo Park, will close at 2 p.m., Wednesday, November 24, but will be open to serve the public Friday, November 26. This includes the map sales office and the USGS library.

Southern California’s deserts have been profoundly altered since the arrival of modern civilization and it may take centuries for the harsh but fragile ecosystem to recover even with vigorous intervention to restore natural habitats, according to an article in the current issue of the journal Environmental Management.