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Friday, November 20, 2015

Where is the Salish Sea?

The Salish Sea is an inland sea along the Pacific Coast of North America.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) defines the Salish Sea as:

"5,500 square miles; extends from the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca eastward and northward to include Puget Sound and Georgia Strait, and their associated bays, coves, and inlets."

The Salish Sea is home to several of North America's most famous port cities including Vancouver, Seattle, Tacoma, Bellingham, Port Angeles and Victoria.

The first known use of the term Salish Sea was in 1988, when marine biologist Bert Webber from Bellingham, Washington, created the name for the combined waters in the region. The term was officially recognized by British Columbia in 2010.

sources: U.S. Geological Survey, NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center, British Columbia Geographical Names Office

Thursday, November 12, 2015

USGS Field Photographs Collection

The U.S. Geological Survey has made part of a huge national repository of geographically referenced USGS field photographs publicly available, according to a recent announcement.

Images in the collection can be located by using a new mapping portal called the Land Cover Trends Field Photo Map. The collection contains over 33,000 geo-referenced field photos with associated keywords describing the land-use and land-cover change processes taking place.

Initially, nearly 13,000 photos from across the continental US will be available to the public, yet the online collection will grow as more processed photos become available. Photos may also be found on the USGS Earth Explorer website.

“This is a treasure trove of royalty and copyright-free photography collected using consistent procedures,” said Chris Soulard, project leader and USGS research geographer.

The benefit of these photos being hosted by the USGS is equal access to all without copyright concerns and quality control,” said Jason Sherba, USGS geographer and project web-developer.

The photography was collected as part the USGS National Land Cover Trends Project, a research effort that spanned over ten years and represented one of USGS’ largest cross-center research efforts.

source: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey