Unified Interior Regions

The U.S. west coast is an area of complex coastal geography. This photograph depicts several examples of geological features along the California coastline that are shaped by varied coastal processes. The gently sloping beach, stark bluffs, and presence of smooth rocks suggests that the coastal processes shaping this coastline are complex.

A three year study was conducted in seasonal wetlands to determine if a deep and shallow water pool resulted in a reduction of methylmercury in caged fish and surface water.

The USGS California Basin Characterization Model (BCM) was used to understand the rate and amounts of natural groundwater recharge in the Indian Wells Valley and to refine historical estimates of groundwater recharge in the valley. Results from this study provide validation of recharge estimates

Topography and bathymetry of southern Cascadia, which includes southern Oregon and northern California (seafloor depths between 200 and 3000 m are shown in the spectrum color scale from red (shallower) to purple (deeper). The land and continental shelf are shown in grayscale slope shading where darker colors represent steeper slopes. Green lines are locations of known

Building 3 on the USGS Western Region campus in Menlo Park, California.

Building 1 formerly housed many different USGS groups, including the Western Coastal and Marine Geology team, but slowly has been leased out to other federal agencies like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Veterans Affairs (VA). At the right is the Menlo Survey Federal Credit Union.

Thurston Lake and Mount Konocti, Clear Lake Volcanic Field, California.

Fires burned across California in late 2019. Fall is the state's most dangerous season for wildfires, propelled by dry and windy conditions. In recent years however, the fall fire season has been starting earlier and ending later. A series of images from the MODIS sensor on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites show the Kincade Fire in northern California. This fire started on

USGS Research Scientist Ellen Goodrich-Stuart adjusts a CH4 (Methane) analyzer mounted on the eddy covariance flux tower at the Rush Ranch site at Suisun Marsh. 

Title: Sea-Level Rise, Extreme Water Levels, and Coastal Erosion ... How bad could it possibly be?

• Sea-level rise represents an unprecedented civil engineering challenge.
• Small amounts of sea-level rise can disproportionately increase the frequency of coastal flooding.
• One-third to two-thirds of the beaches in Southern California may disappear

In this video, you can hear the honks and quacks of geese and ducks ring through the air, as birds fly in every direction above a wetland. This video was captured at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge in November 2019, not long after geese and ducks began to arrive to spend the winter in the California Central Valley.