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 the most recent modeling indicating that the small alpine glaciers of GNP are on track to disappear by the end of the century (Bosson and others, 2019), 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...
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
As the most popular attraction in Glacier National Park (GNP), the Going-to-the-Sun Road traverses scenic alpine zones and crosses the Continental Divide at Logan Pass (2026m or 6,647' elevation). The Park closes a 56km (34.8 mile) section of the road each winter due to inclement weather, heavy snowfall, and avalanche hazards. Annual spring opening of the road is a highly anticipated event...
Brief History of Glaciers in Glacier National Park
The history of glaciation in Glacier National Park spans thousands of years of glacial growth and recession, carving the steep and striking mountain features we see today. Glaciers have been present within the boundaries of present-day Glacier National Park since as early as 6,500 years ago (Munroe and others, 2012). These modest glaciers varied in size, tracking climatic trends, but did not...
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
Snow scientists with the USGS are unraveling specific weather, climate, and snowpack factors that contribute to large magnitude avalanches in an effort to understand these events as both a hazard and a landscape–level disturbance. The Snow and Avalanche Project (SNAP) advances our understanding of avalanche-climate interactions and wet snow avalanches, and improves public safety through...
Secondary Glacier Network
The Secondary Glacier Network includes six glaciers (Chaney, Grinnell, Stanton, Agassiz, Swiftcurrent, Jackson-Blackfoot Glaciers) that form a north-south transect of approx. 60 km through the region, with Sperry Glacier just south of center. While these glaciers will be monitored less frequently than the benchmark glacier, Sperry, this network will provide data about the variability of...
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.
Neosho River at Neosho Rapids
Trees line both banks of the murky Neosho River at Neosho Rapids. Some tree debris floats in the middle of the river.
Although agriculture and urban activities have substantially affected water quality in several areas of the South Platte River Basin, concentrations of pesticides and volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), such as MTBE, are generally below levels of concern for human health, according to the results of a 5-year investigation of water quality by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The flood may be over but the hydrologic work continues on and is more critical than ever, was the message that U.S. Geological Survey Director Gordon Eaton gave to the troops in Bismarck Friday (Aug. 1, 1997).
As the unprecedented floodwaters of the Red River slowly begin to subside in Grand Forks, N. Dak., crews from the U.S. Geological Survey are tracking the northward movement of the water, taking measurements to help improve forecasts of the flood for evacuations upstream.
The current floods in North Dakota far exceed previous floods that occurred in 1950, 1969, 1978, 1979 and 1996, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
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.
Contacts
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