Water science news, explainers, and statistics covering freshwater, hydrology, lakes, rivers, groundwater, ice, and Earth’s connected water systems.
A useful map of Texas lakes begins with the state’s river basins. Most prominent inland waters are reservoirs built across rivers, so their names, shorelines and operating purposes make more sense when viewed inside the basin that supplies them. The Texas Water Development Board provides an official major-reservoir map that labels existing water-supply reservoirs against…
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Lake Tahoe reaches about 1,645 feet deep, with its deepest basin in the lake’s north-central part. The U.S. Geological Survey’s modern bathymetry is the best official source for seeing that basin, the broad shelves near shore and the steep underwater slopes that make Tahoe the second-deepest lake in the United States after Crater Lake. The…
Marine geography studies the spatial arrangement of oceans, seas, coasts and seafloor features, along with the relationships connecting those places. It asks where a feature occurs, how it is distributed and how physical geography influences human activity or ecosystems. Maps are central because much of the subject lies beneath water. The field overlaps with oceanography…
Lake Michigan is an inland freshwater sea with dimensions that are easier to grasp one fact at a time. The measurements below use basin-wide figures from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Michigan’s environmental agency. Shoreline length and elevation can vary by method and water level, so each number is best read with its definition.…
