CH 27.3 Flashcards
what percentage of water on earth is salt water?
96 percent
what percentage of water on earth is freshwater?
3%
where is the majority of freshwater found?
Over 68 percent of the fresh water on Earth is found in icecaps and glaciers, and just over 30 percent is found in ground water. Only about 0.3
where is the smaller percentage of freshwater found?
Over 68 percent of the fresh water on Earth is found in icecaps and glaciers, and just over 30 percent is found in ground water.
what is precipitation?
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds.
what is runoff?
In earth science, erosion is the action of surface processes that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth’s crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited.
what is infiltration?
Infiltration is the process by which water on the ground surface enters the soil. It is commonly used in both hydrology and soil sciences. The infiltration capacity is defined as the maximum rate of infiltration.
what is transpiration?
Transpiration is the process of water movement through a plant and its evaporation from aerial parts, such as leaves, stems and flowers.
what is evaporation?
Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on the surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase. The surrounding gas must not be saturated with the evaporating substance. When the molecules of the liquid collide, they transfer energy to each other based on how they collide with each other.
what is condensation?
Condensation is the change of the state of matter from the gas phase into the liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. The word most often refers to the water cycle
what is the water cycle?
The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle or the hydrological cycle, is a biogeochemical cycle that describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth.
what is an unsaturated zone for ground water storage?
The unsaturated zone, immediately below the land surface, contains water and air in the open spaces, or pores
what is a saturated zone for groundwater storage?
The saturated zone, a zone in which all the pores and rock fractures are filled with water, underlies the unsaturated zone.
what is a water table?
The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated.
what does it mean if sediment is permeable?
Permeability describes how easily water can flow through the rock or unconsolidated sediment and how easy it will be to extract the water for our purposes.
