1.2: The Water Cycle Flashcards
How much water is locked up in oceans?
97%
How much water on the Earth is freshwater?
3%
How much water is locked up as ice an glaciers?
79% of freshwater
How much water is groundwater?
20% of freshwater
How much water is lakes?
52% of easily accessible surface fresh water
How much water is soil moisture?
38% of easily accessible surface fresh water
How much water is atmospheric water vapour?
8% of easily accessible surface fresh water
What is the hydrosphere?
A discontinuous layer of water at or near the Earth’s surface.
Includes liquid and frozen surface water, groundwater and atmospheric water vapour.
What is cryospheric water?
Water locked up on the surface as ice.
What is terrestrial water?
This consists of groundwater, soil moisture, lakes, wetlands and rivers.
What is atmospheric water?
Water found in the atmosphere; mainly water vapour with some liquid water and ice crystals.
Oceans cover around ____% of the Earth’s surface.
72%
What are the five locations of crysopheric water?
- alpine glaciers
- ice caps
- ice sheets
- permafrost
- sea ice
Sea ice is a location of cryospheric water. What is it?
Forms when water in the ocean is cooled to temperatures below freezing.
Doesn’t raise sea levels when it melts because it forms directly from ocean water.
What are alpine glaciers?
Thick masses of ice found in deep valleys or upland hollows.
Most fed by ice from ice caps or smaller glaciers.
Ice caps are a location of cryospheric water. What is it?
Thick layers of ice ON LAND which are smaller than 50,000km2.
Usually found in mountainous areas.
Tend to be dome shaped. And are centred over the highest point of an upland area.
Ice sheets are a location of cryospheric water. What are they?
A mass of glacial land ice, bigger than 50,000km2.
They form in areas where snow that forms in winter doesn’t melt entirely over summer, so over 1000s of years the laters of snow pile up into thick masses of ice, growing thicker and denser.
Largest in Greenland and Antarctica - these contain more than 99% of freshwater ice on Earth.
Permafrost is a location of cryospheric water. What is it?
Ground (soil or rock) that remains below 0*C for at least 2 consecutive years.
Most permafrost today formed during cold glacial periods and has persisted through warner interglacial periods, including the Holocene.
But this has begun to melt as climate warms. This has released large amounts of CO2 and methane, potentially affecting global climates.
