Images

Black-capped Chickadee perched in a bush. This species of chickadee is important in Alaska.

Black-capped Chickadee in a bush. This species of chickadee is important in Alaska.

Black-capped Chickadee perched in a bush. This species of chickadee is important in Alaska.

Looking down on the Marrowstone Marine Field Station.

The USGS operates a real-time lake elevation monitoring gage on Spirit Lake to ensure water level does not exceed a safe limit. In 1985, the U.S.

Red Irish lord sculpin - Scuba divers from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Western Fisheries Research Center, Washington Sea Grant, EPA and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe collected data and images from a long-term study of the Elwha River dam removals and the resulting effects on the nearshore ecosystem.

Helicopter dropping off monitoring equipment at Mount St. Helens, Washington.

USGS divers Steve Rubin and Reg Reisenbichler laying out a survey transect in the Elwha River in northern Washington.

USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center’s research vessel R/V Parke Snavely motors on the Nisqually Reach of Puget Sound.

After floods, USGS scientists use indirect indicators to determine the extent and height of flooding. Debris caught on trees and fences is one such indicator.

A USGS Technician attaches a high water marker to a tree. Debris wedged on the tree indicates the height that flood waters reached. A comprehensive survey of these markers allows scientists to determine the size of floods. 

Eruptions in the Cascade Range during the past 4000 years. USGS GIP 64

Sunrise on Pompey Peak, Washington.

Specific Pathogen-Free (SPF) Pacific herring reared in the wet laboratory at the Marrowstone Marine Field Station.

Train tracks and overwater structures along Browns Bay in Edmonds, Washington often occur on developed shorelines of Puget Sound. The built environment can interrupt the flow of sediment from back-beach bluffs to the intertidal zone, attenuate and redirect alongshore currents, and reduce upper beach habitat.

A landscape photograph of a valley with a mountain in the background. The valley consists of forests and residential housing.

Subalpine meadow near Deer Park campground on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

USGS scientist observing Mount St. Helens' crater and dome from the Brutus Camera station.

Typical clinical signs of SVC disease, exopthalmia and abdominal distension with hemorrhaging seen in a virus-exposed fathead minnow.

Mount Adams western profile as seen from Mount St. Helens.

Crest gages record high flows. In this case, pieces of cork floating in a tube record the highest level that water reached during a storm event. A technician records the level with a tape measure.