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Interactive map of wind farms in the United States

The U.S. Geological Survey's interactive windFarm map provides detailed information on wind farms across the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.

By zooming in on the map, users can find the precise location of tens of thousands of individual turbines, with information for each turbine including the owner, generating capacity, on-line date, type of tower, blade length, total height, and the confidence with which this information can be given.

Visualization of water use in the United States

The U.S. Geological Survey has produced a visualization that shows how much freshwater is used by each state for a variety of purposes. The visualization resizes the states according to how much freshwater they use.

The visualization shows freshwater withdrawals for thermoelectric power generation, public supply, irrigation, industrial use, or total withdrawals, with data available in 5-year intervals from 1950 to the present.

Click here to access the visualization of state water use.

Life-saving Diplomacy: The Volcano Disaster Assistance Program at Thirty

On Nov. 13, 1985, the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia killed more than 23,000 people. Geoscientists at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash., moved to action. Having studied the warning signs and responded to the eruption of Mount St. Helens five years earlier, they knew from experience that the Nevado del Ruiz disaster could have been prevented. Their advocacy paved the way for the formation of the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP) in 1986. VDAP is the world’s first and only international volcano response team. In the January issue of EARTH Magazine, VDAP’s growth and evolution over 30 years are chronicled, highlighting the team’s past successes and goals for the future.

Interactive map of coastal and marine geoscience features in the United States

The Marine Cadastre National Viewer is a joint product of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The viewer contains an enormous amount of information relevant to marine and coastal issues in interactive map form. Over 275 different map layers are available on a wide range of topics. The geoscience-related layers include:

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