National Park Geology Image Sources

In teaching geology, a picture is often worth a thousand words. This page lists public domain image sources that educators may find useful for teaching geology with national park examples. Reference in this webpage to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the public, and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by NPS.

Grand Canyon National Park Photo Index
An on-line collection of Grand Canyon National Park images organized by subject.

National Park Geology photo database
An on-line searchable database of park geology images. This database includes a small but growing collection of donated images from around the NPS. Unless noted otherwise, photos in this collection are in the public domain or have been contributed for educational use. Contact parkgeology@den.nps.gov to donate images (and captioning information) to this collection.

National Park Digital Image Archives
http://www.nps.gov/pub_aff/imagebase.html

An on-line collection of park images organized by park name. Enter this site to view and download thousands of public domain digital images in JPEG and PHOTO CD format.

USGS Puhblic Affairs Multimedia Gallery
http://gallery.usgs.gov/

Includes collections featuring Mojave NP, Glacier NP, Death Valley NP, volcanos of Hawaii and Alaska, historic photographs, and much more. The gallery offers a wide range of useful features including RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication), Flash video format for videos with captions, downloadable high-resolution photography, and more.

Geology of National Parks
http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/

3D and Photographic Tours Featuring Park Geology and Natural History

U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library
http://libraryphoto.cr.usgs.gov/index.html

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Central Regional Library maintains a collection of over 400,000 photographs from 1868 to the present. Some photographs have been used in USGS publications, but most have never been published. Currently, this website represents less than 10 percent of the Library's images with approximately 30,000 photographs on-line.

National Park Service Historic Photograph Collection
http://home.nps.gov/applications/hafe/hfc/npsphoto.cfm

The National Park Service Historic Photograph Collection is comprised of more than two million images which cover a wide variety of subjects: Park architecture, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Native American heritage, NPS personnel, roads and transportation, scenic views, and much more. The collections of several eminent National Park Service photographers, including Arno B. Cammerer, George A. Grant, and Abbie Rowe are also included. Search the NPS Historic Photograph Collection for images dating from the late 1800s to the present day.

American Geological Institute Earth Science World Image Bank
http://www.earthscienceworld.org/images/

The Earth Science World Image Bank has photographs of all aspects of Earth Science available to the public, educators, and the geoscience community.

NOAA National Data Centers
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/products/ngdc_products.html

Numerous slide sets, posters and compact discs are available for sale by NOAA. A few examples of park related materials include:

• Erosional Landforms slide set - Dramatic views of erosional landforms sculpted by rivers, glaciers, and waves. Many of the locales include U.S. National Parks and Monuments.
• Fire vs. Water: The Erosional & Depositional Geology of Hawaiian Islands slides - The opposing forces of volcanism and erosion shape Hawaii's dramatic geology.
• Hawaii Volcanism: Lava Forms - Colorful images of lava fountains, lakes, cascades, flows, spatter, and lava entry into the sea.
• Rock Varnish slides - 22 images include aerial photographs of the Death Valley region, photomicrographs of various rock varnish layers and an explaination of the climatic context in which these layers are formed.
• Shield Volcanoes of Hawaii poster & Stratovolcanoes of the World poster - Two new posters featuring descriptive text and dramatic images describing shield volcanoes and stratovolcanoes.
• Geological Hazard Photos, 1997 - Three-volume collection of photographs of damage from natural hazards in TIF, GIF, and JPG formats. Earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, landslides and other geologic hazards are represented.