Water science news, explainers, and statistics covering freshwater, hydrology, lakes, rivers, groundwater, ice, and Earth’s connected water systems.
The HydroSHEDS HydroLAKES database reveals the extraordinary scale of Earth’s inland waters. Its global inventory maps about 1.4 million lakes and reservoirs. It also provides a consistent scientific foundation for comparing their surface areas, shorelines, depths and estimated volumes. Even the word “largest” carries several meanings. A lake can dominate by area, depth, or total…
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A study in Science has put a surprising new contender near the top of the Cretaceous ocean food chain. Researchers studying fossilized jaws from Japan and Canada report that Nanaimoteuthis haggarti, an ancient octopus relative, may have reached about 19 meters in length. The estimate places the animal in the same size range as some…
Researchers at UT Austin have reported fossilized microbial wrinkle structures in 180-million-year-old deep-water rocks from Morocco, pointing to ancient life that may have flourished in darkness. The finding, described in a study in Geology, suggests that some microbial communities left traces in places where scientists have rarely expected them to survive or fossilize. The discovery…
A study in Frontiers tested three levels of added alkalinity in seawater and found a sharp chemical boundary for a proposed ocean-based carbon removal method. Researchers led by Georgia Southern University reported that high doses can cause calcium carbonate to form solid particles within a day, reducing the benefit the process is meant to deliver.…
