United States Geological Survey
Scientific agency of the United States government / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the United States government with work spanning the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March 3, 1879 in order to study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The agency is also known to make maps of extraterrestrial planets and moons based of data from the U.S. space probes.
 Seal of the United States Geological Survey | |
 Official identifier of the U.S. Geological Survey | |
 Flag of the United States Geological Survey | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | March 3, 1879; 144 years ago (1879-03-03) (as Geological Survey) |
| Jurisdiction | United States |
| Headquarters | John W. Powell National Center Reston, Virginia, U.S. 38.9470°N 77.3675°W / 38.9470; -77.3675 |
| Employees | 8,670 (2009) |
| Annual budget | $1.497 billion (FY2023) [1] |
| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency | United States Department of the Interior |
| Website | USGS.gov |
The USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior; it is that department's sole scientific agency.[2] The USGS employs approximately 8,670 people[3] and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The USGS also has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, and Menlo Park, California. The USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility.
The current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is "science for a changing world".[4][5] The agency's previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its hundredth anniversary, was "Earth Science in the Public Service".[6]