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From May to September 2018, Kīlauea volcano experienced its largest eruption in more than 200 years. The eruption drained the summit lava lake and shallow magma reservoir, covering the volcano’s lower East Rift Zone in 35 square-kilometer of lava. Successive collapse events at the summit resulted in a collapsed crater more than 500-meter deep.

Barrier islands, headlands, and coastal shorelines provide numerous valuable ecosystem goods and services, including storm protection and erosion control for the mainland, habitat for fish and wildlife, salinity regulation in estuaries, carbon sequestration in marshes, and areas for recreation and tourism. These coastal features are dynamic environments because of their position at the land-sea interface.

The USGS National Unmanned Systems Project Office (NUPO), in collaboration with the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, constructed a photogrammetric three-dimentional digital surface model (DSM) and orthometric image map via an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) using Structure from Motion (SfM) techniques.

Monastery Run Wetland 1 near Latrobe, Pennsylvania, is a passive mine water treatment system constructed in 1997–1998 to treat multiple discharges from an abandoned underground mine. The OSMRE Technical Support Division assisted the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) with diagnosing issues and improving the effectiveness of the water treatment system.

Physical scientists at Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska have been using remote sensing methods to monitor an unnamed glacial ice-dammed lake (IDL) and the subsequent glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) that regularly occur at Bear Glacier to understand the timing, frequency, and drivers that lead to GLOFs.

The FWS Division of Migratory Bird Management is integrating remote sensing and machine learning technologies to improve safety, data quality, and efficiency of broad-scale migratory bird surveys. The Division uses manned Department of the Interior fleet aircraft to monitor migratory bird populations over vast regions of North America.

The Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite near Shell, Wyoming, showcases an exposed dry wash with hundreds of Jurassic, carnivorous dinosaur tracks preserved in the rock. The tracks, formed approximately 167 million years ago, were discovered by members of the public in 1997. The BLM has created a 40-acre recreation site around this quarter-acre tracksite and is tasked with preserving the tracks and their value for the public.

The BLM’s National Operations Center (NOC) frequently assists field offices with production verification at mine sites across the West, but these analyses are often limited by a lack of historical data.

Migratory species depend on a chain of habitats for survival, including breeding habitats, overwintering sites, and migratory stopover locations. Barrier islands in the northern Gulf of Mexico provide habitat for all three of these life-history phases and are important habitat for many shorebird species, such as Red Knots, Piping Plovers, and Western Sandpipers.

Carbonate precipitation can occur where groundwater enters lakes and supplies chemicals missing from the lake, creating carbonate mounds called tufa mounds or microbialites. These precipitates can often be associated with microbes that either create micro-environments that encourage precipitation or act as templates for precipitation.