Water science news, explainers, and statistics covering freshwater, hydrology, lakes, rivers, groundwater, ice, and Earth’s connected water systems.
A king tide is a popular name for an exceptionally high tide. The term has no formal scientific category or worldwide threshold. The highest predicted tides usually occur when the sun, moon and Earth are nearly aligned, often near the time when the moon is closest to Earth. Local coastline shape and seasonal water levels…
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A barrier island is a long, narrow body of sand that runs roughly parallel to a mainland coast and is separated from it by a bay, lagoon, marsh, or tidal creek. Waves, tides, wind and storms continually rearrange its sediment. The island acts as a mobile buffer that absorbs ocean energy before it reaches sheltered…
An artificial reef is a human-made structure underwater that provides hard surface and physical relief used by marine organisms. It may be placed specifically for habitat, diving, shoreline protection, or fisheries management. Shipwrecks and offshore platforms can also function as reefs even when reef creation was not their original purpose. NOAA’s artificial reef overview lists…
An archipelago is a chain, cluster, or broad group of islands. Its islands may rise from the ocean, sit in a lake, or divide a large river. Some archipelagos form one country, while others cross political borders. Geology explains why the islands occur together; maps and human history often determine which name people give the…
