United States Geological Survey

The United States Geological Survey (USGS), operated by the United States Department of the Interior, was established on March 3, 1879. With more than 10,000 scientists, technicians, and support staff working in more than 400 locations throughout the United States, USGS collects, monitors, analyzes, and provides scientific understanding about natural resource conditions, issues, and problems. USGS serves the United States by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life. USGS operates an online earthquake hazards program providing information on worldwide earthquake activity, science, and hazard reduction.

ArcWeb Services users have access to United States elevation data provided by USGS. The National Elevation Database (NED) was developed by merging the highest-resolution, best-quality elevation data available across the United States into a seamless raster format. NED is the result of the maturation of the USGS effort to provide 1:24,000-scale digital elevation model (DEM) data for the conterminous United States and 1:63,360-scale DEM data for Alaska. The shaded relief display is derived from NED using a hillshaded technique. The primary purpose for a shaded relief display is for geographic reference, for a background image, or to enhance topographic structure that is perpendicular to the illumination angle. Content provided by USGS is also useful for proximity searches and queries of specific locations in the United States.

Available USGS Services

• U.S. Elevation Data Spatial Query USGS
• U.S. National Elevation Dataset Shaded Relief Map USGS
• U.S. National Land Cover Dataset Map USGS
• World Earthquakes Spatial Query USGS
• World Recent Earthquakes Map USGS