Articles tagged as Water | Smithsonian Magazine

Niagara Falls is beautiful, but it can also be destructive.

When the Niagara River Crushed a Power Plant

A cascade of rock slides left Schoellkopf Power Station’s three generators in ruins and killed one worker

June 7, 2017

It's peak waterfall season in Yosemite National Park—and epic snowmelt means it's better than ever.

Trending Today

Chasing Waterfalls? Head to Yosemite

Don’t stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to—recent snowmelt is fueling spectacular falls

May 19, 2017

Environmental chemists are developing a method that could suck toxic metals out of marine environments.

How Electrified Steel Could Suck Toxic Metals From the Ocean

After a century of strip mining and deforestation, New Caldonia researchers are working to de-contaminate marine waters

May 5, 2017

Cool Finds

Shipwreck Identified as Rare Canal Boat

Durham boats once fueled trade in the Erie Canal

May 4, 2017

Relaxing lap pool or urine-filled dystopia?

New Research

Scientists Found a Sweet New Way to Measure Pee in Pools

A common food additive reveals how much urine lurks in the lanes

May 3, 2017

New Research

Antarctica’s Blood Falls Helps Unravel the Inner Workings of Glaciers

A new study maps the path of the water that feeds the falls and explores how water can exist under the ice

May 2, 2017

New York restaurants donated these oyster shells to the project. They'll be used to grow new oysters as part of an ambitious restoration program.

Future of Conservation

Why New York Schoolchildren Want to Grow a Billion Oysters

It’s a grand attempt to restore a ravaged estuary

May 1, 2017

Explore China’s Ancient Water Towns

The Venice of the East sits just 30 minutes by train from Shanghai

April 28, 2017

Busting apart this aging dam on the Jeremy River in Connecticut opened up 27 kilometers of salmon habitat and spawning gravel for the first time in close to 300 years. Other fish will benefit too, including the eastern brook trout, sea lamprey, American eel, and river herring.

The Environmental Price of Dams

Why some conservationists are demolishing dams in the name of rivers and fish

April 10, 2017

Mesh billboards on the Moroccan mountainside will soon be joined by numerous others—a planned 31 in all—to create the world’s largest fog collection facility.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

This Device Collects Water From the Clouds

CloudFisher does exactly as its name implies—drawing water down from the sky

March 29, 2017

Though the single-run of Full Circle beer is long gone, the message about the importance of water conservation still stands.

San Diego Breweries Experiment With Recycled Water

Stone and Ballast Point Breweries both created beers made from highly purified waste water

March 27, 2017

Among all those poppies is something less beautiful—noxious, invasive weeds.

In a word: weeds

March 24, 2017

A few days after a New Zealand river gained the rights of personhood, an Indian court has declared that two heavily polluted rivers also have legal status

March 23, 2017

A scanning electron microscope image of the water bear.

New Research

How the Remarkable Tardigrade Springs Back to Life after Drying Out

A particular protein helps these these tiny critters survive dehydration for over a decade at a time

March 20, 2017

The Whanganui River has finally been granted legal status.

It’s the end of more than a century of struggle

March 17, 2017

Computer-simulated global view of Venus.

Think Big

The Case for Going to Venus

Sending a probe to Earth’s lifeless twin could help us understand how life rises—and falls—on faraway planets

March 15, 2017

A close call at Lake Oroville raises questions about the safety of America's dams.

A quiet crisis is afoot as the nation’s infrastructure ages

March 7, 2017

"I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine." No, wait, that's Finding Nemo.

Cool Finds

Take a Peek at the Mesmerizing “Cosmic Jellyfish”

NOAA’s research vessel Okeanos Explorer filmed this specimen of Rhopalonematid trachymedusa in the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa

March 1, 2017

Bleached coral discovered earlier this month at Maureen's Cove in the Great Barrier Reef

After the worst die-off in the reef’s history in 2016, scientists are worried that high sea temperatures will affect the area again

February 27, 2017

Strong atmospheric river events are driving record precipitation across the state of California.

Rivers in the Atmosphere Converge to Give California a Huge Downpour

All aboard the Pineapple Express

February 24, 2017