Natural vegetation and irrigated farmland along the Snake River Plain in Idaho use dramatically different amounts of water during the growing season.
Published Jan 26, 2010
For more than 100 years, groups in the western United States have fought over water. During the 1880s, sheep ranchers and cattle ranchers argued over drinking water for their livestock on the high plains. In 1913, the city of Los Angeles began to draw water away from small agricultural communities in Owen Valley, leaving a dusty dry lake bed. In the late 1950s, construction of the Glen Canyon Dam catalyzed the American environmental movement. Today, farmers are fighting fishermen, environmentalists, and Native American tribes over the water in the Upper Klamath River Basin. The Landsat 7 satellite, launched by NASA and operated by the U.S. Geological Survey, documented an extreme drought in the area along the California/Oregon border in the spring of 2001.
Published Sep 8, 2001
Underground channels have supplied towns in southeastern Morocco for centuries.
Published Nov 19, 2016
An arid region grew even drier between 2003 and 2009 due to human consumption of water for drinking and agriculture.
Published Mar 13, 2013
A new study found that the abundance of these floating plants has increased due to urbanization.
Published Sep 2, 2020
The fast-growing city has polluted waterways and a growing demand for clean tap water.
Published Apr 11, 2017
Thermal infrared imagery of the Southern California desert picks up the invisible water in the farmland around the Salton Sea.
Published Apr 23, 2013Image of the Day Heat Land Water Drought Temperature Extremes
In much of the world, differences in seasonal precipitation—and in how that water gets stored on land—are big enough to affect Earth’s gravity field.
Published Oct 22, 2010
Dark brown squares mark fields that would ordinarily support irrigated crops in California’s Central Valley in this vegetation image. In 2009, a lack of water meant that the crops were not growing well or the fields lay fallow.
Published Aug 16, 2009
Earth is a water planet. Three-quarters of the planet’s surface covered by ice or oceans, and the sky is filled with clouds.
Published Oct 2, 2010
