By samgott@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 21, 2025.

RESTON, VA. — The U.S. Geological Survey used cutting-edge Earth science to publish the first off-planet mineral prospectivity map – assessing likely places to find lunar ice near the Lunar South Pole for a NASA mission. 

By edietrich@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 21, 2025.

Amphibians face an uncertain future in the Southern Rocky Mountains. Disease, such as the deadly amphibian chytrid fungus, habitat loss, and drought are all considerable threats to amphibians in the region. A recently developed decision framework aims to assist resource managers in reducing these threats to amphibians.

By lowen@contractor.usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 21, 2025.

The USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center archive now contains more than one million Landsat 9 Level-1 products (that’s over 1 billion megabytes of Earth observation data)!

By mpoland@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 21, 2025.

Calculating earthquake magnitudes can be a challenge in places like Yellowstone, where lots of small seismic events can occur in rapid succession. But artificial intelligence approaches offer a potential solution to the problem.

By ssoileau@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 20, 2025.

As part of ongoing efforts required under the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy to monitor the population of grizzly bears in the Yellowstone Ecosystem, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) captures and monitors grizzly bears for research and monitoring purposes. Here you will find capture notifications for the current field season.

By samgott@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 18, 2025.

Low-level airplane flights begin as soon as late July over the Black Hills and Bear Lodge areas of Wyoming and South Dakota to image geology using airborne geophysical technology. 

By kmulliken@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 17, 2025.

On July 17, USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory staff conducted a UAS (uncrewed aircraft systems) flight of the recent eurption site at Kīlauea summit.

By kmulliken@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 17, 2025.

Lava fountains at the summit of Kīlauea have been shining a spotlight on Hawaii’s most active volcano but let us not forget the larger one looming in the background of Kīlauea. Mauna Loa is currently quiet and now is a good opportunity to remember the 1950 Southwest Rift Zone eruption—the volcano’s most recent eruption to have caused significant damage—75 years ago. 

By evarelaminder@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 17, 2025.

Southwest CASC-supported researchers use tree-ring reconstructions to link historic climate patterns and wildfire events.

By smieszek@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 17, 2025.

The USGS delivered water-quality techniques training to the Thailand Royal Irrigation Department (RID) 14-20 June in and around Chiang Mai, together with colleagues from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), with funding from the U.S. Department of State. 

By samgott@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 15, 2025.

RESTON, VA. — The U.S. Geology Survey will conduct low-level helicopter flights over parts of southern Colorado to map critical minerals using airborne geophysical technology, beginning in mid-July. The airborne survey will be conducted through Fall 2025, weather and wildfire restrictions permitting, covering parts of Park, Chaffee, Teller, Fremont, Custer, Pueblo, and Huerfano Counties.  

By jmalpass@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 14, 2025.

USGS has joined a new initiative to address bird collisions with glass.

By ppearsall@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 14, 2025.

New research led by USGS finds that along California’s rugged coastline, some of the state’s most scenic “pocket beaches”—short stretches of sand nestled between rocky headlands—undergo predictable rotations each year in response to changing wave conditions. 

By mpoland@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 14, 2025.

In April 2025, Yellowstone National Park geologists identified a new thermal feature in Norris Geyser Basin. Investigation of multiple data streams suggests it may have coincided with a visit from St. Nicholas.

By ppearsall@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 11, 2025.

Hawai‘i’s iconic beaches—essential to the state’s identity, economy, and ecosystems—are disappearing faster than previously predicted. New projections of shoreline change by the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and USGS finds that 81% of sandy shorelines on the island of O‘ahu could be lost by the end of the century, with nearly 40% of that loss occurring within just the next five years.

By kmulliken@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 10, 2025.

The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) maintains a network of nearly 150 monitoring instruments on Kīlauea, which track activity above and below the surface. The ongoing high fountain eruption episodes in Halemaʻumaʻu present new challenges to maintaining parts of the Kīlauea summit monitoring network near and immediately downwind of the eruptive vents. 

By jlawson@contractor.usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 10, 2025.

The landscape of the Prairie Pothole Region of North and South Dakota formed when glaciers from the last ice age receded. The potholes are shallow depressional wetlands left behind by the glaciers now popular with migratory waterfowl.

By kmulliken@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 09, 2025.

Episode 28 of the ongoing Halemaʻumaʻu eruption began at 4:10 a.m. HST on July 9, 2025, and ended abruptly just over 9 hours later, at 1:20 p.m. HST.

By mpoland@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 08, 2025.

An earthquake swarm that started at Mount Rainier on July 8, 2025, is the largest ever recorded at the volcano.

By jlball@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 08, 2025.

The USGS California Volcano Observatory is saddened to announce the death of Edward Wesley (Wes) Hildreth III, in a vehicle accident on June 19, 2025, in rural western Nevada near Long Valley Caldera.  

By emalakoff@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 07, 2025.

Beneath the Western U.S. lies a vast, largely untapped reservoir of energy: geothermal heat.  

By shouse@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 07, 2025.

Title:  Climate change and the global redistribution of biodiversity: are expected range shifts supported by the evidence?

Speaker:  Sarah Weiskopf, Ph.D., Research Ecologist, National Climate Adaptation Science Center

Date:  Friday, July 11, 2:00-2:30 pm Eastern/11:00 -11:30 am Pacific

By evarelaminder@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 07, 2025.

The Climate Change, Climate Variability, and Drought (CCVD) portfolio, a decision support and education tool developed by the Pacific Drought Knowledge Exchange (PDKE), provides users with a comprehensive synthesis of site-specific climate and drought information within the Hawaiian Islands. 

By mpoland@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 07, 2025.

In geology, even small layers can tell big stories.  But figuring out the origins of such small layers can be a challenge, requiring careful mapping and dating of rock units that might easily be overlooked.

By nschmer@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 03, 2025.

USGS groundwater and surface water monitoring data contributed to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's (PaDEP) July 2, 2025, lifting of drought watches for eight counties that were previously in a drought watch. 

By kmulliken@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 03, 2025.

If you’ve been following the ongoing eruption of Kīlauea, you may have seen the terms "gas piston" or "gas pistoning" show up in some of the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) updates, photo captions, and other places. 

By kkovacs@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 03, 2025.

A USGS-led expedition in the Aleutian Arc off Alaska will provide critical information on energy resources, underwater earthquakes and other hazards, seafloor habitats, and biological resources, including key fisheries, as well as potential seabed minerals.

By kkovacs@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 03, 2025.

A USGS-led expedition in the Aleutian Arc off Alaska will provide critical information on energy resources, underwater earthquakes and other hazards, seafloor habitats, and biological resources, including key fisheries, as well as potential seabed minerals. Scientists are collecting critical environmental data using an oceanographic tool known as a CTD. 

By dfisher@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 02, 2025.

In this Summer 2025 edition: Western Maryland Flooding • Chesapeake Bay Watershed Loads & Trends • New Gages • New Publications

By ssoileau@usgs.gov from All News. Published on Jul 02, 2025.

Friday's Findings is a public webinar series hosted by the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area. These half hour webinars are meant to provide listeners an overview of the science topic and chance to ask questions. We hope to offer our audience an opportunity to discover the Ecosystems science capacity within the USGS.