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By Lisa GarciaWhen I was six, my father announced that my family would be moving from the Bronx to Caracas, Venezuela. I was nervous and it didn’t help that my 2nd grade classmates told me our family would be living in grass huts. I thought that maybe Venezuela would be like Puerto Rico, where my…
Stream stage is an important concept when analyzing how much water is moving in a stream at any given moment . Stage is the water level above some arbitrary point in the river and is commonly measured in feet. For example, on a normal day when no rain has fallen for a while, a river might have…
Lava and Lava Flows The temperature of basalt lava at Kilauea reaches 1,160 degrees Celsius (2,120 degrees Fahrenheit). -- USGS/VHP Website, 1998 The tube system (lava tubes) of episode 53 (Pu'u O'o eruption, Hawaii) carried lava for 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the vent to the sea. So…
The U.S. Geological Survey WaterAlert service sends e-mail or text messages when certain parameters measured by a USGS data-collection station exceed user-definable thresholds. The development and maintenance of the WaterAlert system is supported through the USGS Cooperative Water Program , the USGS…
No. Probabilities are estimated from the rate of aftershocks and these are sometimes confused with the prediction of a particular event.
Questions about human health and West Nile virus: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are the designated federal authority charged with investigating impacts of the West Nile virus on human health. The CDC has developed the most comprehensive database available for questions and…
You can purchase topographic maps several ways: Download or online from the USGS Store at http://store.usgs.gov Click on Maps in the left margin or click on the Map Locator near the center of the screen. Topographic maps in GeoPDF format are available for free download by using the Map…
For information on current or recent tsunamis, try: Pacific Tsunami Warning Center West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center Current Messages Recent Tsunamis Recent Events - from the University of Washington Database of tsunami information - from NOAA Other organizations in…
Although both are sea waves, a tsunami and a tidal wave are two different unrelated phenomenona. A tidal wave is a shallow water wave caused by the gravitational interactions between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. A tsunami is a sea wave caused by an underwater earthquake or landslide (usually triggered…
During the three giant caldera-forming eruptions that occurred between 2.1 million and 640,000 years ago, tiny particles of volcanic debris ( volcanic ash ) covered much of the western half of North America, likely a third of a meter deep several hundred kilometers from Yellowstone and several…
The USGS provides access to water-resources data collected at approximately 1.5 million sites in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Online access to this data is organized around the categories listed to the left. The USGS investigates the occurrence, quantity, quality,…
River forecasts are made by the National Weather Service River Forecast Centers and released through local Weather Service Offices. The vast majority of current streamflow data used for these forecasts is obtained from U.S. Geological Survey stream-gaging stations, but USGS has no other…