Multimedia Gallery
Videos
Watch scientific animations, presentations, video shorts, training, and more related to USGS science and research.
What Does a USGS Hydrologic Technician Do
What do USGS Hydrologic Technicians do on the job? This video features five different Hydrologic Technicians from Washington Water Science Center and Nevada Water Science Center sharing some of their work. This video was sponsored by the USGS Hydrologic Data Advisory Committee.
Image of the Week - Dam Failure in Uzbekistan
The western wall of Uzbekistan's Sardoba Reservoir breached on May 1st, 2020 after a week of heavy rain. Thousands were evacuated as water rushed north into farmland and villages across the central Asian country and into neighboring Kazakhstan. Imagery from Europe's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite shows water pooling across a wide area. In the May 4th image 3 days after
Our Director: A Vision for Our Center (New England WSC)
An introduction to the New England Water Science Center's Director and his vision for the Center.
Timelapse showing surface motion of Kīlauea's summit water lake
This timelapse sequence shows 3.5 hours of activity at the water lake in Halema‘uma‘u crater, at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano. Several influx zones supply groundwater into the lake from the margins, creating shifting color zones on the lake surface. No significant changes have been observed in recent lake activity. USGS video by M. Patrick.
Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Monthly Update for November 2020
Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone during November 2020.
Wildfire at the Crossroads
The relationship between people and wildfire has always been paradoxical: fire is an essential ecological process and management tool but can also be detrimental to life and property. Consequently, fire regimes have been modified throughout history through both intentional burning to promote benefits and active suppression to reduce risks. Reintroducing fire and its
La encrucijada del fuego silvestre
La relación entre la gente y los incendios forestales siempre ha sido paradójica: el fuego es esencial como proceso ecológico y herramienta de gestión, pero también puede ser perjudicial para la vida y la propiedad. En consecuencia, los regímenes de incendios se han modificado a lo largo de la historia, mediante quemas intencionales para promover sus beneficios o mediante
Fly By of Jezero Crater and SIM 3464
This video animates the 1:75,000 scale geologic map of Jezero crater, Mars, which is the landing site for the Mars 2020 mission and Perseverance rover, scheduled to land in February, 2021. This map, created by NASA JPL scientists and supported by USGS, primarily relied onimages from the Context Camera (CTX) instrument onboard
Yellowstone Volcano Observ: Overview, Monitoring, Hazards, Results
Just what is the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory? In this video, Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of YVO, gives an overview of the institutions that make up the Observatory, how YVO monitors volcano and earthquake activity at Yellowstone, the geologic hazards of the region, and some of the noteworthy new results and observations from YVO scientists.
Image of the Week - Petermann Glacier 2020 Update
Petermann Glacier in northwestern Greenland is known to generate large icebergs, most notably in 2010 and 2012. Another large iceberg may be forming now. A new rift was spotted on the glacier in 2017. Since then, imagery from both Landsat and Europe's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites show the rift lengthening and meeting up with and older crack. The potential iceberg could
Trace Network in ArcGIS Pro 2.6
Hayley Thompson - USGS Hydrography Researcher (NGTOC, Topographic Applied Research Section (TARS)) gives a gentle introduction to the Trace Network in ArcGIS Pro 2.6 and how you can use it with NHD data.
Topics include:
- What is Trace Network.
- Creating and enabling a Trace Network
- Performing a simple trace using Trace Network
Outreach EROS Overview
This is EROS.
It's located just north of Sioux Falls in South Dakota in the United States on the planet Earth!
EROS stands for Earth Resources Observation and Science. It's a federal government facility where over 600 talented women and men work together to capture, store, and study images of the Earth taken from high above. Our Earth is always changing, and
Lesson 10e1: Products and Services of the 3D Elevation Program
In this lesson, you will learn about the lidar products available through the 3D Elevation Program (which is abbreviated as “3DEP”). The lesson will introduce 3DEP, discuss the lidar data available, and where to find the data.
Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Monthly Update for October 2020
Mike Poland, Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, gives an overview of activity at Yellowstone during October 2020.
Dynamic Styling for NHD and WBD REST Web Services
National Hydrography Advisory Call Oct 27, 2020
Rob Dollison and Sergio Rodriguez discuss web services available for hydrography data. Topics include:
- Introduction to National Map Web Services
- Resources for Connecting to Web Services
- What the Dynamic Styling Web Service Is
- Dynamic Styling in ArcGIS Online (AGOL)
I Am A...Chiropterologist (Halloween Edition)
As #BatWeek comes to an end, we figured it’s the perfect time to get a little bit more…animated. Over the last few weeks the USGS has been highlighting a handful of careers in our “I Am A..." web series. Since we are all batty at the moment, it seems like the perfect time to put the spotlight on chiropterologists, or bat scientists. One favor, though, please promise to not
Image of the Week - Iowa Fields Flattened
The punishing derecho storm that struck the Midwest in early August had an immediate impact on Iowa's farm fields. But it took weeks for the long term damage to appear in satellite imagery. Landsat 8 passed over central Iowa just one day after 100 mile per hour winds pummeled fields of corn and soybeans leaving thousands without power. The lighter shades of green in the
Emerging tech as STEM platforms in problem-based learning (Kīlauea)
USGS–Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Geophysicist Jefferson Chang talks about technologies that track activity at Hawaiian volcanoes and how crowdsourcing and citizen science can contribute to a greater understanding of hazards, in this presentation to the 2020 SACNAS Advancing Hispanics/Chicanos & Native Americans in Science virtual conference held October 19-24, 2020 (
100 Years of Service to Migratory Bird Conservation in North America
This year, the USGS is celebrating the 100-year anniversary of their Bird Banding Laboratory and a century of advancing avian conservation science. Banding is one of the oldest and most important techniques used for studying individual birds. John Tautin, former Chief of the Bird Banding Lab and co-author of Bird Banding in North America: The First Hundred Years, will join
The story of Yellowstone's ups and downs
Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Scientist-in-Charge Mike Poland visits Yellowstone National Park to tell the story of how the ground there moves up and down over time. This motion has been measured using a variety of techniques over the past 100 years, and from geological mapping scientists can even tell how the ground has moved going back about 15,000 years! This research
Image of the Week - Landsat Archive Hits 9 Million Scenes
The Landsat archive is the world's longest continuously collected record of the Earth's surface. In mid September, it notched another milestone by adding its nine millionth scene. This particular image from north central Paraguay helps tell the kind of story that only a long historical record like Landsat can. The rectangular tracks of brown and tan that dapple the
I Am A...Fire Ecologist
Welcome to the "The I Am A..." series. This is the third video in a series of USGS whiteboard animations that highlight USGS careers. The concept is to show "what society (or my mom) thinks I do" compared with "what I really do." One image captures a more whimsical representation of a "scientist" in the field and the second demonstrates a more accurate representation of
May the Quartz Be With You
As part of Earth Science Week 2020, USGS scientist Shannon Mahan takes us on a tour of quartz and how geologists like her use quartz to study all kinds of things, from earthquakes to archaeology.
U.S. River Conditions, Water Year 2020
This animation shows the changing conditions of USGS streamgages from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020. The conditions shown range from the driest condition seen at a gage (red open circles) to the wettest (blue closed circles). There is also a purple ring added to indicate gages that are flooding.
Most of the East Coast was experiencing dry conditions in