The current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is 'science for a changing world'. It is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with major offices near Lakewood, Colorado at the Denver Federal Center and in Menlo Park, California. The sole scientific agency of the United States Department of the Interior, USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility. The agency also makes maps of extraterrestrial planets and moons based on data from U.S. The agency was founded on March 3, 1879, to study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The United States Geological Survey ( USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the United States government whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology.
