In a groundbreaking study led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, researchers have provided a new global accounting of Earth’s rivers, revealing the “fingerprints” of intense water use. The research reveals that the world’s rivers hold a total of 539 cubic miles of water on average from 1980 to 2009, which is roughly equivalent to half the volume of water in Lake Michigan. The Amazon basin, with around 204 cubic miles of river water storage, accounts for approximately 38% of the global estimate, making it the region with the most river storage.
NASA Reveals Global Accounting of Earth’s River Volumes
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