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
Mount Konocti on the western shore of Clear Lake, California
Mount Konocti, a mostly dacitic composite cone, on the western shore of Clear Lake, California. Thurston Lake is in the foreground.
Long Beach Earthquake Damage
View of John Muir School on Pacific Avenue in Long Beach, California, showing damage from the March 10, 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Photo taken 8 days after the earthquake, on March 18, 1933. Photo by W.L. Huber, USGS.
Coso Hot Springs located at Coso Volcanic Field, CA
Coso Hot Springs in Coso volanic fields, Feb 4, 1920.
San Francisco in ruins, 1906
One of the most well-known photographs by George R. Lawrence, taken May 28, 1906, about 6 weeks after the Great San Francisco earthquake which occurred on April 18. The 160-degree panorama was taken from a camera suspended from a kite 2,000 feet in the air. The view looks up Market Street with the waterfront and Union Ferry Building in the foreground.
This media
...Mount Konocti viewed from Cinder Cone, Clear Lake Volcanic Field.
Mount Konocti, the most distinct volcanic feature of the Clear Lake Volcanics as viewed to the west from Cinder Cone.
Alameda County Courthouse (Calif.) before and after 1868 Earthquake
Strong shaking during the 1868 Hayward Fault earthquake caused the second story of the Alameda County Courthouse in San Leandro to collapse (photo courtesy of the Bancroft Library, University of California). The inset photo shows the courthouse before the quake
Delta Smelt
Delta Smelt being held in hand
Sunset Beach Camera 1 Timex
Video camera timex (time-exposure) image at Sunset State Beach in Watsonville, California, looking northwest. Learn more about the cameras and how we're using them to study coastal change.
...Sound Waves, June 2011
The stories in the June 2011 issue of Sound Waves:
https://archive.usgs.gov/archive/sites/soundwaves.usgs.gov/2011/06/
International Team Studies Tsunami Deposits in Japan to Improve Understanding and Mitigation of Tsunami Hazards
USGS Scuba
Santa Cruz Cowells Beach video camera bright image
Video camera bright image at Cowells Beach in Santa Cruz, California, looking southward. Learn more about the cameras and how we're using them to study coastal change.
...Experience over the last several years with the current system for describing the level of geologic unrest, such as earthquake swarms, ground deformation and gas emissions in the Long Valley caldera of eastern California, has shown it to be awkward and susceptible to misinterpretation by both the news media and the public.
A team of Bay Area earthquake scientists will be looking for more than old golf balls when they open an exploratory trench on the second fairway of the Mira Vista golf course in El Cerrito, this week. Golf course officials have rerouted the sedonc hole in order to give the geologists a 10-day window for the study.
Selected, local editions of U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps will be available for purchase at the USGS exhibit that will be part of the San Francisco Bay Trail Project’s National Trails Day Festival, Saturday, June 7, at Robert Crown Memorial State Beach and Crab Cove Visitor’s Center in Alameda.
Peat soils in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and their relationship to water quality; the history and consequences of long-term groundwater use in the Mojave Desert; the hydrology, biology and geology of San Francisco Bay;
Dr. Gordon Eaton, the national director of the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va., will be one of the speakers at the Friday, April 18, 1997 dedication of Placer Hall on the California State University at Sacramento campus.
The presence of the U.S. Geological Survey in Placer Hall on the campus of California State University at Sacramento marks the latest chapter in the USGS’s long association with the study of earth sciences in California and cooperation with the state’s Division of Mines and Geology and its higher education system.
Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and its potential effects on air and water quality were the focus of a session Wed. and Thurs, April 16-17, 1997, at the American Chemical Society annual meeting in San Francisco, California. U.S. Geological Survey scientists will report on several studies of the occurrence and distribution of this compound in surface water and ground water during the session.
Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) in the nation’s ground waters and surface waters will be the subject of papers and poster presentations by U.S. Geological Survey scientists at the American Chemical Society annual meeting, April 16-17, in San Francisco, Calif.
Scientists Locate Faults Possibly Related to Shaking From Northridge, California Eathquake (archive)
U.S. Geological Survey scientists are encouraged because they now know that they have the capability to explain the blind thrust faults of the Los Angeles region with seismic reflection methods, according to USGS researcher Dr. Rufus Catchings.
A cooperative agreement with the University of Southern California (USC) for the operation of the Southern California Earthquake Center has been renewed by the U.S. Geological Survey.
LECTURE: -- "LIVING WITH GEOLOGIC HAZARDS IN SAN MATEO COUNTY" WILL BE THE SUBJECT OF THE NEXT U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY’S FREE PUBLIC LECTURE.
"There is mounting evidence that Mars is a water-rich planet that may have experienced warmer climates, and therefore, life, in the past,"according to Michael Carr, an astrogeologist with the U.S.Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif.