The U.S. Geological Survey's Streamer application allows users to explore where their surface water comes from and where it flows to. By clicking on any major stream or river, the user can trace it upstream to its source(s) or downstream to where it joins a larger river or empties into the ocean.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts data viewer provides a preliminary look at how different amounts of sea level rise would affect coastal flooding in the United States.
In addition to overall flooding estimates, users can see the relative social vulnerability of coastal regions; areas currently already subject to coastal flooding; impacts on marshes; and the different levels of confidence with which predictions can be made in different areas.
The U.S. Geological Survey provides geochemical and mineralogical maps for the conterminous United States, based on sampling data with a spatial resolution of 1 sample per 1,600 square km, for a total of 4857 sites across the country. The resulting interactive maps allow users to see regional variations in soil chemistry at different depths in the soil.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Installed Wind Capacity map shows the current installed wind power capacity in each U.S. state, as well as yearly installed capacity maps dating back to 1999, which collectively show the growth of U.S. wind energy over time.
The University of New Hampshire, in collaboration with the New Hampshire Office of Energy and Planning, maintains the GRANITView application. This application makes a large amount of environmental and other geoscientific information available in interactive map form, including:
The results of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Geologic CO2 Storage Assessment (2013) are available in interactive map form. Detailed information is available on published and unpublished storage assessments for 36 sedimentary basins. Each basin can be clicked on for more information, including:
Background: As the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased over recent history, so has the acidity of oceans worldwide. The changing acidity of the ocean has many ecological and economic impacts, one of the most serious being its effects on marine life and fisheries. The impact of ocean acidification is intensified in colder bodies of water such as those off the coast of New England, a region with a large fisheries sector. These impacts have already been recognized on both coasts, with the Washington, Maine, and Maryland state legislatures commissioning reports on ocean acidification and marine life/fisheries. In 2015, the Massachusetts Legislature also introduced a bill to establish a taskforce to investigate the impact of increasingly acidic waters off the coast of Massachusetts on commercially harvested or grown marine species.
The U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) Mineral Resources Program's interactive Geologic Map of U.S. States provides a large amount of information on geology, natural resources, and environmental data for every U.S. state, including:
Surface and bedrock geology
Mineral resources
Geochemical and geophysical data
Water monitoring sites
Partial soil and land use data
All of the maps are also available as Google Earth files that can be downloaded and used on personal computers and mobile devices.
The U.S. Department of Energy's visualization of per person energy use allows you to explore what the average energy usage for your state looks like in the form of burritos, dynamite, and other more relatable metrics. Because most people can't visualize what it means to use 148,600,000 BTU, this visualization is particularly useful for putting personal energy usage into perspective.