Water science is covered in substantial detail in this website developed by the U.S. Geological's Survey. From water basics and information to a glossary of water terms, and from an activity center to a picture gallery, information is provided with easy to use navigational graphics all intended to help teachers get kids interested in water. Quizzes, stories, statistics and much more are covered. The site is also viewable in Spanish.

"New interim policies scheduled to become official later this year will establish universal peer-review processes for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and bring the agency’s divisions—geology, biology, water, and geography—under the same publication procedures. Peer review has been standard for the agency for decades, but some scientists who spoke to ES&T indicated that these new policies may go too far. "...

"The Earth's magnetic field is both expansive and complicated. It is generated by electric currents that are deep within the Earth and high above the surface. All of these currents contribute to the total geomagnetic field."..."The Earth's Ionosphere and Diurnal-Field Variation The magnetic field, generated in the core and measured at the surface, continues upward through the ionosphere, the electrically-conducting, ionized layer of the Earth's upper atmosphere. The ionosphere extends in height from about 90 km to about 600 km, and it is electrically conducting because ultraviolet radiation from the Sun is absorbed by the electrons of nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the atmosphere. This absorption causes electrons to be dislodged from their molecular orbits, thereby producing free negative charges (electrons) and free positive charges (ions). As the Earth rotates underneath the Sun, periodic differential heating of the atmosphere causes it to expand on the day-side and contract on the night-side. Superimposed upon this variation is an atmospheric tide, similar to the oceanic tide and driven most substantially by the rotation of the Earth under the gravitational field of the Moon. The combination of these periodic forces drive winds in the ionosphere, and with the resulting fluid motion across magnetic-field lines, electric currents are induced. These currents support their own magnetic fields, and thus a diurnal perturbation in the magnetic field is generated. The diurnal-field variation can be measured at the Earth's surface, and with an array of magnetometers it is possible to map the electric currents in the ionosphere. What remains a matter of current research, however, is a dynamically-consistent mapping of the fluid motion sustaining these electric currents in the ionosphere. "..."Of course, the Sun is a highly dynamic presence within the solar system. It has its own dynamo, generating a somewhat tangled magnetic field that extends out into interplanetary space. The Sun also emits a wind of electrically-charged particles, a plasma that flows outwards into space and which carries with it the heliomagnetic field. Because of the pressure exerted by the solar wind on the geomagnetic field, the magnetosphere is compressed on the day side and elongated on the night side of the Earth..."..."With a little bit of diffusion, brought about by electrical resistance, the interplanetary magnetic field can connect onto the Earth's field. Then, particles from the Sun, which would otherwise be deflected by the Earth's field, can stream along these continuously-connected field lines and enter into the magnetospheric cavity. Further advection of the interplanetary field lines by the solar wind peels back the geomagnetic field, and the tail of the magnetosphere is further stretched as well."..