Science Explorer
Exploring: Water
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Water Resources
Water information is fundamental to national and local economic well-being, protection of life and property, and effective management of the Nation’s water resources. The USGS works with partners to monitor, assess, conduct targeted research, and deliver information on a wide range of water resources and conditions including streamflow, groundwater, water quality, and wateruse and availability.
Through the National Water Census, USGS will provide more comprehensive reporting of national information on withdrawal, conveyance, consumptive use, and return flow by water-use category. Water-use data enables water managers to plan more strategically and enables the analysis of trends of over time. It is also vital to water-availability studies...
Water Questions & AnswersIs saline water useful?
Water Education Poster on Water Quality, Middle School
Illustration of the water cycle. Prepared by James R. Douglas, USGS. Published in USGS Circular 1383G: USGS Water Science Strategy—Observing, Understanding, Predicting, and Delivering Water Science to the Nation.
Find out how salt water can be used, such as energy production and desalination.
Water Education Poster on Water Quality, Elementary School
The Natural Water CycleEarth's water is always in movement, and the natural water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. Water is always changing states between liquid, vapor, and ice, with these processes happening in the...
Water Education Poster on Water Use, Middle School
Reliable drinking water is vital for the health and safety of all Americans. The USGS works with drinking water facilities and municipal suppliers to monitor and assess the quality of the water used as a source for our nation's drinking water needs.
General Water|| Floods|| Groundwater
General Water
Water Resources of the United States- Backgroud InformationThe main portal to USGS Water Resources Program provides...
Table-based interface allow you to get the latest streamflow and other surface-water data for thousands of water monitoring sites in the Nation.
Send a text message to WaterNow@usgs.gov containing the USGS Site Number of the gage you want to query (optionally add parameter codes to customize your query). You will receive a response within a few minutes.
A meniscus is a curve in the surface of a molecular substance (water, of course) when it touches another material. With water, you can think of it as when water sticks to the inside of a glass.
Is pure water really clear? Not really—even pure water is not colorless, but has a slight blue tint to it. In the natural world you often see water that is definitely not clear. Sediment and organics color natural water shades of brown or green. And if too much iron in present, even your drinking water can have a brown hue. Read on to investigate...
Water is associated with numerous ecosystem services, including clean water for drinking, support for outdoor recreation, provision for other ecosystem processes, and direct cultural values. SEA economists investigate these aspects of the value of water quality and water quantity through multiple projects, including many under the umbrella of the...
The U.S. Geological Survey WaterAlert service sends e-mail or text (SMS) messages when certain parameters, as measured by a USGS real-time data-collection station, exceed user-definable thresholds.
"Water dowsing" refers in general to the practice of using a forked stick, rod, pendulum, or similar device to locate underground water, minerals, or other hidden or lost substances, and has been a subject of discussion and controversy for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Water is essentially incompressible, especially under normal conditions. Yet, in industrial applications water can be tremendously compressed and used to do things like cut through metal.
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon Drilling Platform exploded and sank, causing an enormous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. Geological Survey field offices responded immediately by organizing teams to take pre-spill sediment and water samples in order to establish a baseline survey. This baseline will be used to determine the scope and...