Geography Of The World
What Happens If Lake Mead Drops Below Its Power Intakes
Hoover Dam has already lost half its output since 2000 without anyone noticing. What happens if Lake Mead falls below the turbines, and why it is a slope not a cliff.
The Tallest Mountain In America From Base To Summit
Measured from its deep-sea base, one American peak beats Everest by thousands of feet. See how nine giants rank when height starts at the bottom.
What Happens When A River Meets The Ocean
See what happens when a river meets the ocean, and why fresh water floats, salt water pushes upstream underneath it, and the mud never makes it out to sea.
The Longest Stretch Of The Mississippi With No Bridge
Between Helena, Arkansas and Greenville, Mississippi, the Mississippi River runs 131 miles with no bridge and no ferry. Here's why nobody has ever spanned it.
How Great Bear Lake Compares To The Great Lakes
Great Bear Lake is bigger than two Great Lakes, deeper than all five, and home to just 500 people. How Canada's Arctic giant stacks up against the famous five.
How Long It Takes Invasive Mussels To Cover A Lake Bottom
A few invasive mussels can carpet a lake bottom in two years or take over a decade. Depth, food, and the species involved decide how fast it happens.
The Most Powerful Storms The Great Lakes Have Ever Seen
Wind speeds, wave heights, and death tolls decide the ranking of the six worst storms ever recorded across the Great Lakes, worst first.
The Only Coral Reef In The Continental United States
Warm Gulf Stream water gives southern Florida the only living coral barrier reef on the US mainland, third-largest on Earth and 8,000 years old.
The Widest River In The United States
The widest river in the US is the Mississippi, over 11 miles across at Lake Winnibigoshish. But there's a catch, and the widest navigable stretch is much narrower.
The Lakes With The Largest Snapping Turtles
Field studies pin down a handful of US lakes with the densest, best-documented snapping-turtle populations scientists have actually managed to measure.
Why Great Lakes Waves Are More Dangerous Than Ocean Waves
Ocean waves arrive every 10 to 12 seconds. Great Lakes waves arrive every three. That single difference is why swimmers drown in conditions that look calm
The Invasive Species Costing US Lakes The Most Money
The biggest repair bills in US lakes rarely come from the biggest species. See what zebra mussels, hydrilla, and sea lampreys cost to control each year.
The Lakes America Built And Then Regretted
From Hetch Hetchy and Glen Canyon to flooded tribal homelands and dams now torn down, these are the lakes America built and came to regret.
The Colorado River Tributary That No Longer Reaches It
The Colorado River's largest tributary, the Gila, is so heavily dammed and diverted that it no longer reaches the Colorado, except during rare desert floods.
How Many Dams Hold Back America's Largest Lakes?
America’s largest lakes rely on massive dams to hold back enormous volumes of water, with the total number of structures varying by reservoir.
What Happens If The Ohio River Floods Louisville Again
The wall holds the river back; the aging pumps behind it are the weak point. Here is what a major Ohio River flood would actually do to Louisville today.
The Heaviest Fish Ever Recorded In American Fresh Water
Americans often enjoy the merits of fishing. Needless to say, at some point, someone somewhere caught the heaviest fish ever recorded in fresh water.
What Actually Separates One Ocean From Another
Most ocean boundaries are invisible lines someone drew on a chart. A few are real geography. Here is what actually separates one ocean from another.
The Cleanest Reservoirs In The United States
Clean water doesn't happen by accident. Meet five of the cleanest reservoirs in the U.S., from Flaming Gorge to Lake Roosevelt, and how they stay clear.
Lake Powell Has 27 Feet Of Margin, Lake Mead Has 88
Lake Powell has ~27 feet of margin and Lake Mead ~88, but to what? A calm explainer on what those numbers mean for hydropower, water users, and the years ahead.
What Happens If The Sacramento Delta Levees Fail
A Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta levee failure could restrict a water route serving 27 million Californians, push salt inland, and flood islands for months.
The Longest Migrations In The Ocean
The Longest Migrations In The Ocean belong to gray whales, humpbacks, leatherback turtles, and elephant seals, some crossing entire ocean basins each year.
Why Some Fish Can't Survive Below A Certain Depth
Depth changes everything for a fish, and it’s not just the pressure, but also the temperature, darkness, food supply, buoyancy, and how its cells function.
The Single Crop That Uses The Most Colorado River Water
One crop grown to feed cattle uses more Colorado River water than Phoenix, Vegas, Denver and Los Angeles combined. Alfalfa, and why the numbers are contested.
The Youngest Mountain Range In The United States
Grand Teton, despite its impressive appearance, is actually the youngest mountain range in the entirety of the United States.
The American Mountains You Can Reach By Train
These six American mountain railways climb steep grades into the high country, ending at summit buildings, mountain towns, and breathtaking overlooks.
The Sea Animals That Never Stop Growing
These ocean giants never stop growing. Meet the Greenland shark, whale shark, and other sea creatures with indeterminate, lifelong growth.
The US Lakes That Went From Polluted To Clean
See how polluted US lakes were restored through sewage controls, sediment cleanup, and major reductions in agricultural and urban runoff.
Who Actually Uses Colorado River Water
Who actually uses Colorado River water? Not the cities. Farms take ~74%, and cattle-feed alfalfa alone uses more than every city combined. The real breakdown.
The US Waters Where Forever Chemicals Have Been Found
PFAS, or forever chemicals, have been detected in US waters from North Carolina to Michigan to the Colorado River, across nine waterways in all.
What Lies Beneath The Deepest Part Of The Ocean
The depths of Earth's oceans are equally mysterious and terrifying; humans know more about the surface of the moon than about the deepest part of the ocean.
Why Sea Otters Live On Only One American Coast
Sea otters were not wiped out of the Atlantic. They were never there. Why the only marine mammal without blubber can live on just one American coast.
The Widest Mountain In The United States
One American mountain spreads so far across the landscape that its width rivals its height for sheer scale, giving it a footprint unlike any other.
The Biggest Creatures Ever Filmed In The Deep Sea
These behemoths spend their entire lives half a mile or more beneath the ocean's surface, in permanent darkness and crushing pressure.
The Cities That Depend On The Colorado River
From Las Vegas (90%) to Denver, Phoenix, LA, and San Diego, these are the cities that depend on the Colorado River, many nowhere near its banks.
The US Lakes Where Invasive Snakeheads Have Been Found
US lakes with confirmed invasive snakehead records, from Meadow Lake in Queens to Silverwood in California, tracked through federal USGS data.
How Great Lakes Water Levels Rise And Fall So Dramatically
Water levels on the Great Lakes can swing several feet in just a few years. Here's how rain, evaporation, wind, and upstream flow drive the change.
The Largest Lakes In The Southern Hemisphere
Lakes are a dominant geographic feature on Earth. Our planet is home to millions of these freshwater bodies, often formed by glacial activity.
The Coldest Ocean Water In The United States
The coldest US ocean water is off Alaska: the Beaufort Sea near Prudhoe Bay averages about 33.8°F, with Eastport, Maine, and California also cold.
Where Denver Would Get Water If The Colorado Failed
Denver would lose about half its supply if the Colorado failed, and would not run out. The bigger threat is a compact call taking its water rights first.