Images

Great Basin rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus lutosus) held by snake tongs. The Great Basin rattlesnake is the only venomous snake in Idaho.

A Great Basin rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus lutosus) is coaxed into a plastic tube. This plastic tube allows researchers to safely handle the rattlesnake during biological sample collection.

Alex Hatem stands in front of 1983 Borah Peak rupture with actual Borah Peak in the background. 

This photo shows an outcrop of pyroclastic flow deposits near Willow Creek on the Pumice Plain at Mount St. Helens. The dramatic lines crossing the outcrop indicate contacts between different layers of pyroclastic flow deposits. Two participants of the 2019 GeoGirls program are shown studying the outcrop, using it to understand the eruptive history of the volcano.

The GeoGirls create field drawings of 1980 pyroclastic flow deposits on Mount St. Helens’ Pumice Plain.

Torrent salamanders are Northwest-U.S. endemic, headwater-stream-associated amphibian species that have a dearth of basic ecological information, but are thought to be highly vulnerable to habitat changes.

The GeoGirls visit a volcano monitoring station on the east side of Mount St. Helens, finding out how scientists use different monitoring methods (seismic, GPS, tiltmeter) to understand more about the volcano.

GeoGirls 2019 group photo, with Mount St. Helens in the background.

GeoGirls hike to Willow Creek, on Mount St. Helens’ Pumice Plain, to learn more about the ecology of the blast zone and how the area has recovered since the catastrophic May 18, 1980, eruption. Here, they look at stream characteristics and how it has influenced the return of life to the area.

The GeoGirls hike the Pumice Plain at Mount St. Helens, examining lava outcrops and volcanic sediment.

GeoGirls venture into Ape Cave, a 2,000-year-old lava tube on the south flank of Mount St. Helens, as they learn about Mount St. Helens’ eruptive history and lava flows.

Snake River near Irwin, ID staff plate (station 13032500)

Moving ESP into gagehouse

MBARI Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) installed in Streamgage

USGS Scientists taking sediment core USGS Scientists taking sediment core at Six Gill Slough restored marsh.

A 3-4m (10-12 ft) high outcrop of basalt lava, part of a broader lava flow. These flows were erupted about 300,000 years ago following basalt dike intrusions in a rear-arc region of northern California. The eruptions of three of these flows are thought to have taken place within several hundred years of each other.

USGS EROS contractor Minsu Kim, left, and USGS Scientist Jeffrey Danielson stand with a GPS device in northern Idaho, where they were part of a research project to conduct topobathymetric research along the Kootenai River of northern Idaho.

Root nodules are a symbiotic relationship between a plant and nitrogen-fixing bacteria. A symbiotic relationship is one where both organisms benefit. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria change inorganic nitrogen from the air into ammonia, a form of nitrogen most organisms can use.

The alfalfa leafcutting bee (Megachile rotundata) is an introduced species common to Southwest Idaho. They originate from the old world, most likely from northeastern Africa or the Middle East. These bees are successful pollinators of various crops and have been imported to North America for use in agriculture and beekeeping.

Justin McKoon, hydrologic technicians with the USGS Idaho Water Science Center, measures treamflow at USGS streamgage station 13124265, Warm Springs Creek below diversion near Mackay, Idaho.

Juga sp. snails, the molluscan intermediate host for Nanophyetus salmincola, populate the bottom of a stream bed in a south Puget Sound watershed.