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
PubTalk 5/2003 — The National Map—Coming to Your Neighborhood!
Integrating and Sharing Geographic Information in the Public Domain
By Ken Osborn, Cartographer
- Begun by the USGS in 2001, The National Map is a 10-year vision for a seamless, constantly updated, national geospatial database
- This vast public database will be continually updated through local
PubTalk 4/2003 — Gaia's Breath
Methane and the Future of Natural Gas
By Keith A. Kvenvolden, Geochemist
- The Earth--or "Gaia," the Earth Goddess of Ancient Greece-- exhales more than 1 million tons of methane each day
- Mud volcanoes around the world emit about 5 million tons of methane each year as part of Gaia's breath
- Energy
Sagebrush-dominated ecoregions
Sagebrush-dominated ecoregions in the western United States (sagebrush cover types shown in various shades of yellow, pink, and blue-grey).
PubTalk 1/2003 — Exploring Mars
Recent Discoveries and Upcoming Missions
By Michael H. Carr, Planetary Geologist
- Thirty years of Mars exploration have revealed a spectacularly diverse planet
- Dry river valleys and layered sediments suggest a warm, wet past
- Huge floods may have created transient oceans
- Towering volcanoes, deep
Los Angeles Margin and Basin
Overall perspective view of the Los Angeles Margin and Basin looking northeast. The distance across the bottom of the image is about 100 kilometers with a vertical exaggeration of 6 times. The margin is bisected by a series of large underwater canyons, channels, and gullies. Underwater landslides occur along the steep slope off the Palos Verdes Peninsula (far right)
...PubTalk 12/2002 — Hawai`i's Volcanoes—Never a Dull Moment
20 Years of Eruption at Kilauea and Waiting for Mauna Loa
by Don Swanson,Volcanologist, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
- Kilauea's Pu'u O'o-Kupaianaha eruption, which began on January 3, 1983, is already the volcano's longest rift eruption in at least 600 years
- Lava has destroyed 8 miles of highway and 189
PubTalk 11/2002 — What is a Butterfly Worth?
Challenge of Making Economic Estimates for Biodiversity
by Alicia Torregrosa, Geographer and Ecologist
- How can we best strike a balance between vineyard development and wildlife in the Napa Valley?
- Geographic Information System (GIS) facilitates comparing the "apples and oranges" of endangered species and the
California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus)
California sea lions on a platform.
California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus)
California sea lions on a platform.
California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus)
California sea lions on a platform.
California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus)
California sea lions on a platform.
California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus)
California sea lions on a platform.
The presence of 125,000-year-old microfossils in the muds of San Francisco Bay may help engineers decide where and how to rebuild the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, according to a U.S. Geological Survey(USGS)scientist in Menlo Park, Calif.
The effects of ground-water development on ground-water levels and ground-water quality in the town of Atherton, Calif., is the focus of a report released by the U.S. Geological Survey , Department of the Interior.
More than 200 exhibits dealing with topics from ocean floor photography to the geology of Mars will be highlighted at the U.S. Geological Survey’s open house at its Western Region Center in Menlo Park, Calif., September 13 and 14.
The U.S. Geological Survey needs help to prepare for and assist at its big open house, September 12, 13 and 14, at the USGS Western Region Center in Menlo Park.
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.