Water science news, explainers, and statistics covering freshwater, hydrology, lakes, rivers, groundwater, ice, and Earth’s connected water systems.
Utah Lake is unusually shallow for its size. At a full-lake reference level, official local sources describe an average depth of roughly 9 to 10.5 feet and a maximum depth of about 14 feet, or 4.3 meters. The deepest water lies within the broad central basin rather than in a narrow offshore trench. Those figures…
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A map of U.S. rivers and lakes shows one connected drainage network rather than a collection of isolated blue lines. The Mississippi system dominates the center, the Colorado and Columbia drain much of the West and short coastal rivers reach the Atlantic or Pacific directly. The Great Lakes occupy the northern border, while thousands of…
Biotic factors in the ocean are its living organisms and the relationships among them. They include microscopic phytoplankton, bacteria, kelp, corals, fish and whales. They also include predation, competition, decomposition and symbiosis, because those interactions alter which organisms survive and how energy moves through a marine community. Biotic factors differ from temperature, light, salinity, pressure…
New Zealand’s major lakes occupy volcanic calderas, glacial troughs, landslide-blocked valleys and coastal lowlands. The 12 below were selected for geographic scale, distinctive origin or national and regional importance. They are not presented as one objective ranking because surface area, depth and cultural significance answer different questions. The list represents both main islands and uses…
