Geography Of The World
The 10 Tallest Mountains In The Sierra Nevada
Mount Whitney leads California's Sierra Nevada fourteeners, a list of 10 granite peaks first climbed between 1864 and 1921 by surveyors and mountaineers.
The Deepest Spring In The United States
Wakulla Spring near Tallahassee drops about 185 feet, the deepest freshwater spring basin in the US and the source of the Wakulla River.
The Deepest River Gorge In America
Hells Canyon on the Idaho-Oregon border drops 7,913 feet from He Devil to the Snake River, with Nez Perce history, three dams, and a wild stretch of river.
The Highest Lake In The United States
Pacific Tarn in Colorado is the highest lake in the US at 13,420 feet, the highest officially named lake in the country, beating Hawaii’s Lake Waiau.
The Most Remote River In The Lower 48
The most remote river in the Lower 48 flows more than 20 miles from any road, through grizzly country where trout still swim upstream to spawn every summer.
Which US City Uses The Most Water
A billion gallons of water go into New York City's homes, hospitals, and businesses each day, enough to fill nearly 1,500 Olympic swimming pools.
The Largest Octopus Ever Found Off The US Coast
The giant Pacific octopus is the largest recorded but the verified record is 156 pounds, not the 600 the diver claimed in the 1950s with unusable photographs.
6 Most Alligator Filled Rivers In Alabama
Six Alabama rivers where alligators gather most, from the Mobile-Tensaw Delta to the Tennessee River, in a state now home to an estimated 70,000 gators.
7 US Lakes Where Water Snakes Stay Active Into November
On some Southern lakes, water snakes and cottonmouths are still out in November, turning up along cypress paddling trails and a Florida wildlife drive.
Why Great Lakes Freighters Are So Long And So Narrow
The Poe Lock is 110 feet wide and a thousand-footer is 105. The length was never the constraint. The width was, and the shape follows from it.
How Lake Superior Compares To The Biggest Lake On Every Other Continent
Lake Superior beats the biggest lake on almost every continent, from Africa’s Lake Victoria to Antarctica’s buried Lake Vostok, losing only to the Caspian Sea.
Where Otters Go When Rivers Freeze
River otters stay active all winter at Wyoming's Yellowstone Lake and the Red River of the North, using geothermal ice holes, open water, and beaver lodges.
How Hudson Bay Compares To The Great Lakes
Hudson Bay is five times the area of all five Great Lakes combined, and Lake Superior is deeper than it. On both measures. That is the whole comparison. (
How Great Lakes Freighters Break Through The Ice Every Winter
On the Great Lakes, Coast Guard icebreakers like the cutter Mackinaw cut tracks through winter ice so freighters can keep moving iron ore to port.
The Oldest Mountain Range In The United States
The Appalachian Mountains are the oldest mountain range in the US at about 480 million years, though Missouri and the Black Hills hold far older mountain rock.
Where Trout Go When Rivers Freeze
Where Trout Go When Rivers Freeze comes down to deep pools, spring-fed runs, and beaver ponds, where the fish barely move until the ice breaks in spring.
Why The Atlantic Ocean Is Getting Wider
Far beneath the Atlantic, a vast mountain range creates new seafloor inch by inch, slowly widening the ocean and carrying continents farther apart.
Why Great Lakes Freighters Are Painted The Colors They Are
Copper paint against shipworms made hulls red, the Great Lakes Fleet added gray and black bow stripes in 1990, and a sale often sends a laker to the paint shop.
The Clearest Spring In America
At Rainbow Springs, underwater visibility can exceed 250 feet, and passengers once watched fish through viewing windows set below the waterline of boats.
What Happens If Lake Okeechobee’s Dike Fails
The 1928 hurricane broke Lake Okeechobee's levee, killing more than 2,500 people. Here is what a failure of today's Herbert Hoover Dike in Florida could mean
Lake Powell and Lake Mead See Dramatic Rebound After Floods
Lake Powell is up 22 feet since late September. Lake Mead is up 2.7. Both are still lower than a year ago, and only snow changes that.
Why Fish Don’t Freeze In A Frozen Lake
Fish in frozen lakes survive winter in liquid water beneath the ice, where deeper water stays near 39°F and a slower metabolism helps them conserve energy.
Why The Gulf Of Mexico Is So Warm
The Gulf of Mexico gets its warmth from subtropical sunlight, shallow shelves, and the Loop Current, and its surface warmed about 1.8°F between 1970 and 2020.
How Much Fuel A Great Lakes Freighter Burns In A Season
U.S. lakers average about 1.9 million gallons of fuel a season between the Soo Locks opening in March and closing in January; a gallon moves a ton 610 miles.
How The Great Salt Lake Compares To The Great Lakes
Lake Erie’s average depth is nearly twice the Great Salt Lake’s deepest point. It loses on area, loses by 640 times on volume, and is not even fresh water
The Most Crooked Coastline In America
Alaska has America's longest and most intricate coastline, shaped by glaciers, fjords, islands, volcanic activity, and coastal erosion.
The Great Lakes Freighters That Sank With All Hands
The Charles S. Price, Kamloops and Edmund Fitzgerald sank with no survivors, so what is known came from lifebelts, a bottle note and wrecks found years later.
Where Manatees Go When The Water Gets Cold
When winter temperatures drop, Florida manatees seek warm-water refuges in natural springs and power plant canals across the state.
The Day Lake Peigneur Disappeared
Louisiana's Lake Peigneur drained into the salt mine beneath it in 1980. How salt domes give way, and where similar collapses opened in Texas and Russia.
The Columbia River Carries Ten Times What The Colorado Does
The Columbia is fourth on the list of American rivers by discharge. The Colorado is thirty-eighth. The basins are nearly the same size.
Where Alligators Live In Mobile Bay
Mobile Bay alligators crowd the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, bask by Causeway restaurant decks, and turn up at Gator Lake and in the surf on Dauphin Island.
What Would Happen If Sea Level Rose 10 Feet In California
Ten feet of sea-level rise would reach SFO, Alviso, the Delta’s below-sea-level farm islands, and Long Beach, where older port piers sit on former marsh.
How Much A Great Lakes Freighter Costs To Build Today
The Mark W. Barker’s price was never disclosed, but a 1973 thousand-footer cost $35 million, about $254 million in 2025 dollars, built under Jones Act rules.
Why The Great Lakes Almost Never Freeze Over Completely
The Great Lakes, so large that they are often mistaken for inland oceans, almost never completely freeze over. Here's why.
The Highest Mountain Range In The Lower 48
The Sierra Nevada runs about 400 miles through eastern California, climbing more than two miles above the Owens Valley and topping the Rockies and Cascades.
Why Great Lakes Freighters Stop Sailing In January
Each January, Great Lakes freighters tie up for the winter as the Soo Locks close for repairs, ice spreads on the lakes, and shipyards take over the fleet.
How Snapping Turtles Survive Under A Frozen Lake
Beneath a frozen lake, snapping turtles go months without breathing. Metabolic shutdown and shell chemistry are what keep them alive until spring.
Where Leeches Go In The Winter
When lakes freeze, leeches survive beneath the ice. Learn where they shelter, how they endure winter, and when they become active again.
The Highest Waterfall On A Major American River
The Highest Waterfall On A Major American River is the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone, which plunges nearly twice as far as Niagara into a colorful canyon.
How Much Iron Ore Gets Stockpiled Before The Soo Locks Close
The Lake Superior ore docks hold 15 million tons. Federal analysis says the mills need 15.5 to survive the Soo Locks closure. The system runs with no margin.