United States Geological Survey
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The United States Geological Survey (USGS) is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility.
The USGS was founded March 3, 1879 from disparate regional survey agencies by Clarence King. Since 1962, it has been involved in global, lunar and planetary exploration and mapping. Part of the United States Department of the Interior, it is the department's sole scientific agency. The USGS employs approximately 10,000 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with major offices in Denver, Colorado, and Menlo Park, California.
The USGS is the primary civilian mapping agency in the United States, and is best known for its 1:24,000 scale, 7.5-minute quadrangle topographic maps.
The USGS operates the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado which detects the location and magnitude of earthquakes worldwide. The NEIC informs both appropriate authorities and the media, domestic and worldwide, about significant earthquakes.
The USGS National Geomagnetism Program monitors the magnetic field at magnetic observatories and distributes magnetometer data in real time.
As of 2005, the agency is working to create a National Volcano Early Warning System by improving the instrumentation monitoring the 169 volcanoes in U.S. territory and by establishing methods for measuring the relative threats posed at each site.
The motto of the USGS is "science for a changing world."
The USGS also runs 17 research centers in the United States, including the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.
See also
External links
- USGS official site
- USGS Circular 1050 (History of the USGS)
- USGS Geomagnetism Program
- Current world earthquakes
- Major USGS Discipline sites: Water, Geology, Geography, Biology
- TerraServer-USA and TopoZone host USGS topographic maps (and aerial photos on TerraServer-USA); Maptech hosts historical USGS topos in the northeast U.S.
