Unified Interior Regions
Region 5: Missouri Basin
USGS Science Centers in the Missouri Basin Region
For more information on what each center is doing in the Missouri Basin, please follow the links below!
Wyoming - Montana Water Science Center
Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center
Regions L2 Landing Page Tabs
Agassiz Glacier, 1943 - 2005
View of Agassiz Glacier from glacier basin, Glacier National Park.
Image Use
Most of the repeat photography images available on this website are in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission. Images with restrictions are noted below the downloadable image.
Please respect the...
Agassiz Glacier, 1913 - 2005
A view of Agassiz Glacier from Boulder Pass, Glacier NP.
Image Use
Most of the repeat photography images available on this website are in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission. Images with restrictions are noted below the downloadable image.
Please respect the photographer:...
Gigapixel Imagery of Glacier National Park
View and dynamically explore high resolution gigapixel images of Glacier National Park with GigaPan panoramas taken by CCME staff. This collection of images serves as landscape documentation and as an interactive forum for public exploration of Glacier National Park’s changing landscapes. Search “ccme” at http://gigapan.org By accessing these links you are...
Losing a Legacy: a photographic story of disappearing glaciers
With evidence of worldwide glacial recession and predictions that all of the glaciers in Glacier National Park will melt by the year 2030, NOROCK scientists are documenting glacial decline through photography. Since 1997 over seventy photographs of nineteen different glaciers have been repeated. Thirteen of those glaciers have shown marked recession and some of the more intensely studied...
Repeat Photography Project
Climate change research in Glacier National Park, Montana entails many methods of documenting the landscape change, including the decline of the parks namesake glaciers. While less quantitative than other high-tech methods of recording glacial mass, depth, and rate of retreat, repeat photography has become a valuable tool for communicating effects of global warming. With evidence of worldwide...
Going-to-the-Sun Road Avalanche Forecasting Program
The Going-to-the-Sun Road (GTTSR) is one of the premier attractions in Glacier National Park (GNP), Montana. It opened in 1933 after 12 years of construction and is one of GNP’s most heavily used facilities. The two-lane, 80-kilometer road traverses the park from west to east, crossing the Continental Divide at Logan Pass at 2026m elevation. The Park closes a 56km section of the road each...
Natural Hazards of Spring Opening of Going to the Sun Road
The Going-to-the-Sun (GTTS) Road in Glacier National Park, Montana is one of the park's premier attractions and the most heavily used facility. The road traverses Glacier, from the west entrance in West Glacier to the east entrance in St. Mary. The narrow, 52-mile road crosses the Continental Divide at Logan Pass, at an elevation of 6880 feet. The Logan Pass section of the GTTS Road is...
History of Glaciers in Glacier National Park
The history of glaciation within current Glacier National Park boundaries spans centuries of glacial growth and recession, carving the features we see today. Glaciers were present within current Glacier National Park boundaries as early as 7,000 years ago but may have survived an early Holocene warm period (Carrara, 1989), making them much older. These modest glaciers varied in size, tracking...
Retreat of Glaciers in Glacier National Park
Worldwide glacier recession is well documented (1,2) and varied model projections suggest that certain studied GNP glaciers will disappear in the next few decades, between 2030 (3) to 2080 (4). USGS scientists in Glacier National Park are collaborating with glaciologist from Alaska and Washington and using emerging technologies to understand glacier-climate interactions to advance the...
Alpine Climatology of Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park is a topographically diverse region, making localized effects of elevation, aspect, and cold air drainage several of many important factors that necessitate a diversity of long-term climate monitoring sites. Additionally, many studies have shown more rapid warming at higher elevations across the Intermountain West, but with relatively few high-elevation stations available...
Landscape Change Photography
Repeat photography is being used by the CCME program to document landscape change. Glaciers have been the primary focus of this park-wide survey and this collection of repeat photographs, available for download on the CCME website, have been used to illustrate the effects of climate change in venues across the globe. These powerful images, with their inherent ease of interpretation, have...
Snow and Avalanche Research
Since 1991, CCME staff have conducted snow surveys throughout Glacier National Park. These data have contributed to regional climate change and hydrologic models. Snowpack characteristics have also been evaluated in relation to avalanche forecasting and plowing of GNP’s Going to the Sun Road efforts. Studies of natural snow avalanches reveal connections with large-scale climate and wildfire...
Larval Release
Simultaneous mass release of 700,000 free embryos from boats distributed across the channel of the Upper Missouri River.
Processing a Drift Sample
Student Contractor Garrett Cook processes a drift sample collected on June 27 shortly after the free embryos and beads were released. Note the small cluster of pallid sturgeon free embryos and green beads in the lower portion of the sorting tray. These embryos and beads were elements of the Upper Missouri River drift experiment.
Dye Delivery
The rhodamine-WT dye was injected in the river uniformly across the channel.
Dye Preparation
USGS scientists prepare to mix rhodamine-WT dye for the dye trace experiment. The suits are to keep the harmless dye off of clothing.
Red dye-tracer study in June 2016 on the Missouri River in Montana
USGS scientists conducted a dye-tracer study in June 2016 on the Missouri River about 10 miles downstream of Fort Peck Dam, Montana. The public can expect to see the Yellowstone River turn a similar color in the vicinity of the injection site when scientists conduct a dye study near Glendive, Montana in late June, 2017.
Harmful algal bloom turns Lake Milford water emerald green
Harmful algal blooms turn water in Milford Lake emerald green
Fish Swimming on Gravel Bed
Fish swim along the gravel bed bottom of the North Fork of the Flathead River.
Blackfeet Environmental Office personnel groundwater sampling
USGS hydrologist trains Blackfeet Enviromental Office staff to collect groundwater samples on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation
Montana wetland
Panoramic view of a Montana wetland
Mother grizzly and cub at Gibbon River, Yellowstone National Park
A USGS grizzly bear researcher snapped this picture of a mother grizzly bear and her cub in Yellowstone National Park. Adult females are the most important segment of the grizzly bear populations because they are the reproductive engine.
Perchlorate and Selected Metals in Water and Soil within Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Author interview on report "Perchlorate and selected metals in water and soil within Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota, 2011–15," U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5030. An environmental concern to water resources within Mount Rushmore National Memorial has been the annual aerial display of fireworks at the memorial for the
Sediment sampling Neosho River
USGS Hydrologist lowers a D-96 sediment sampler into the Neosho River using a small crane from on top a bridge at Burlingame Kansas.
The flow of the Red River officially broke the 100-year-old record on Thurs. April 17, 1997, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
A contract valued at $100 million has been awarded to Hughes STX Corporation, of Lanham, Md., for operation of the U.S. Geological Survey’s EROS Data Center, in Sioux Falls, S.D.
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Locations
Dakota Water Science Center- Huron Programs Office
Phone: (605) 352-4241
Fax: (605) 352-4304
Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
custserv@usgs.gov
Phone: 800-252-4547
Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK) Headquarters
Phone: 406-994-7544
Fax: 406-994-6556
Nebraska Water Science Center
Phone: (402) 328-4100
Fax: (402) 437-5139
Kansas Water Science Center
Phone: (785) 842-9909
Fax: (785) 832-3500
Dakota Water Science Center- Bismarck
Phone: (701) 250-7400
Fax: (701) 250-7429
Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Phone: 701-253-5500
Fax: 701-253 5553
Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center - Helena Office
Phone: (406) 457-5900
Fax: (406) 457-5990
Dakota Water Science Center- Grand Forks Field Office
Phone: (701) 775-7221
Fax: (701) 775-1114
Dakota Water Science Center- Rapid City
Phone: (605) 394-3200
Fax: (605) 355-4523
Dakota Water Science Center- Pierre Field Office
Phone: (605) 224-8440
Fax: (605) 224-8478
Organic Geochemistry Research Laboratory (OGRL)
Phone: (785) 832-3564
Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center - Billings Office
Phone: 406-656-1444
Wichita Field Office
Phone: (316) 773-3225
Hays Field Office
Phone: (785) 623-2848
North Platte Field Office
Phone: (308) 532-5323
Fax: (308) 532-5603
Yankton, South Dakota Field Research Station
Phone: 605-665-9217