Water science news, explainers, and statistics covering freshwater, hydrology, lakes, rivers, groundwater, ice, and Earth’s connected water systems.
Turbidity describes the relative clarity of water by measuring how strongly suspended or dissolved material scatters light. Clear water has low turbidity; cloudier water generally produces a higher reading. The measurement does not identify the material, so a high value can come from mineral sediment, algae or other light-scattering matter. Turbidity is an optical property…
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Fame is not a scientific measurement. This unranked selection treats a body of water as famous when it has exceptional physical importance, a wide cultural reach or an instantly recognizable place in world geography. It crosses oceans, seas, lakes and rivers rather than comparing unlike waters by size. Each entry explains the physical reason the…
A useful map of lakes in Southeast Michigan has to show two kinds of water at once. Hundreds of inland lakes cluster most densely across Oakland, Livingston and Washtenaw counties, while the region’s eastern edge follows the connected waters of Lake Huron, the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River and Lake Erie.…
A simple underwater volcano experiment uses colored hot water rising through colder water to make an invisible process easy to see. The plume rises because warming lowers water density. As it loses heat to the surrounding water, it spreads and eventually sinks. The moving color traces a small convection current. The activity is best understood…
