You are browsing the archive for water Archives - GeoSpace.
7 January 2019
Colorado’s Lake Dillon is warming rapidly
The surface waters of Lake Dillon, a mountain reservoir that supplies water to the the Denver area, have warmed by nearly 5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.5 degrees Celsius) in the last 35 years, which is twice the average warming rate for global lakes. Yet surprisingly, Dillon does not show adverse environmental changes, such as nuisance algal blooms, often associated with warming of lakes.
26 December 2018
Consumer purchasing data shows locals’ response to water contamination
Supermarket purchases show scientists how communities respond to health-related water quality violations, which could provide them with a new tool for monitoring public health concerns, according to new research. In a new study, researchers saw increased purchases of bottled water and over-the-counter antidiarrheal medicine in areas where health-related violations of the Safe Water Drinking Act were reported.
15 August 2018
Amazon pirating water from neighboring Rio Orinoco
The Amazon River is slowly stealing a 40,000-square-kilometer (25,000-square-mile) drainage basin from the upper Orinoco River, according to new research suggesting this may not be the first time the world’s largest river has expanded its territory by poaching from a neighbor. The rare conjunction could help researchers understand how river systems evolve and how the Amazon Basin grew to dominate the South American continent.
1 June 2018
Reconstructing America’s longest water level and instrumented flood record in Boston
By Jan Lathrop Using newly-discovered archival measurements to construct an instrumental record of water levels and storm tides in Boston since 1825, researchers report that local averaged relative sea level rose by nearly a foot (0.28 meters) over the past 200 years, with the greatest increase occurring since 1920. The work also highlights tides and their significant effect on flooding in the city. The evaluation of storm events since 1825 …
7 May 2018
Powerful hurricanes strengthen faster now than 30 years ago
Hurricanes that intensify rapidly – a characteristic of almost all powerful hurricanes – do so more strongly and quickly now than they did 30 years ago, according to a new study. Many factors are at play, but the chief driver of more rapid hurricane intensification is a natural climate cycle known as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) that affects water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean where hurricanes form, according to the study’s authors.
26 April 2018
Satellites could further help mitigate river floods
Now, a new study in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, analyzes what it would take for river-observing satellites to become an even more useful tool to mitigate flood damage and improve reservoir management globally in near real-time.
4 January 2018
Scientists help Costa Rican community manage dwindling water supply
As part of an interdisciplinary, international research team called FurturAgua, researchers from the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University have developed a tool they call the Groundwater Recharge Indicator for two watersheds in the Guanacaste Province of Costa Rica. The Groundwater Recharge Indicator can help community leaders prepare for the dry season by providing an estimate of water availability based on rainfall during the wet season. With this new tool, authorities can implement water conservation efforts such as collecting rainwater or using surface water instead of groundwater before the dry season begins and potential droughts occur, according to the researchers.
14 December 2017
The continental U.S. is experiencing more flooding, and earlier in the year
The frequency of flooding in the continental U.S. is increasing, and seasonality of floods is shifting, according to new research.
6 December 2017
Cartogram maps provide new view of climate change risk
Scientists have developed cartograms — maps that convey information by contorting areas — to visualize the risks of climate change in a novel way.
22 November 2017
Scientists discover evidence of recent water flows on Mars
Planetary scientists have discovered a rare ‘esker’ on Mars – a ridge of sediment deposited by meltwater flowing beneath a glacier in the relatively recent past (about 110 million years ago), despite the widely-held view that the recent climate was too cold for ice to melt.
GeoSpace is a blog on Earth and space science, managed by AGU’s Public Information staff. The blog features posts by AGU writers and guest contributors on all sorts of relevant science topics, but with a focus on new research and geo and space sciences-related stories that are currently in the news.