Water science news, explainers, and statistics covering freshwater, hydrology, lakes, rivers, groundwater, ice, and Earth’s connected water systems.
A study in Nature Communications reports a clear rise in sea-surface salinity across a broad belt of the Southern Ocean. From 2004 through 2024, the water between 40°S and 50°S became saltier by about 0.03 salinity units per decade. The pattern was especially coherent in the Pacific and Atlantic sectors. Lisan Yu and John M.…
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A 2017 chemical analysis reported 43.3 percent total dissolved solids in water from Gaet’ale Pond in Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression. That figure sits far above the roughly 3.5 percent salt content commonly used for the open ocean. It also points to a powerful rule of dry landscapes: when water arrives in a closed basin and evaporation…
The United States holds an astonishing range of lakes, from tundra basins in Alaska to warm, shallow water in Florida. This ranking highlights ten states whose published totals stand out. It also reveals a basic problem with any lake-count comparison: each state decides which water bodies belong in its tally. The result is a portrait…
From orbit, several of Canada’s biggest reservoirs can look like natural inland seas. Their long shorelines and branching bays hide a more recent story. Dams, dikes and diversions raised water across river valleys and lowlands to create storage for hydroelectric systems that serve communities far beyond the north. Engineers selected basins where large flows could…
