Earth's Hydrosphere Flashcards
What percent of water on Earth is freshwater?
3%
Only___% of the freshwater on Earth is in rivers, lakes, and ponds.
1/2% of the Earth’s freshwater.
What is freshwater’s freezing point?
32 degrees Fahrenheit and 0 degrees Celsius.
What is freshwater’s boiling point?
212 degrees Fahrenheit and 100 degrees Celsius.
Is saltwater or freshwater more dense?
Saltwater
What is an aquifer?
Rock or soil through which groundwater moves easily.
What is a spring?
A flow of groundwater that emerges naturally at the ground surface.
What percent of the water on Earth is saltwater?
97%
Oceans cover ___% of the Earth?
71%
What is an Intertidal Zone?
Area that is underwater during high tide but exposed during low tide.
What is the Continental Shelf?
Underwater landmass that extends from a continent making the water relatively shallow.
What is the Abyssal plain?
Underwater plain found in the deep ocean.
What is the Open Ocean?
Everything in the ocean outside the coastal areas.
What is the Epipelagic or sunlit zone?
Receives enough sunlight to support photosynthesis. Temperature varies with location so it could be warm or cold.
What is the Mesopelagic or twilight zone?
Small amounts of light, cold(40-68 degrees Fahrenheit) and increased pressure.
What is the Bathypelagic or midnight zone?
No light, 90% of the ocean, and greatest amount of pressure. Temperature is near freezing.
What are the two most abundant elements in the ocean?
Sodium and Chlorine
Where does sodium come from?
Rivers
Where does Chlorine come from?
Volcanic gases
What produces elements in the ocean?
Weathering and erosion
What do surface currents develop from?
Friction between the ocean and wind.
What are smaller surface waves responses to?
Local or seasonal influences.
What are large surface waves responses to?
The circulation pattern of the athmosphere.
What is a gyre?
Larger circular-moving current systems.
What is a gyre influenced by?
Wind and the Coriolis Effect.
What does the Earth’s rotation cause?
Currents deflect right in the Northern Hemisphere and deflects left in the Southern Hemisphere.
What is Upwelling?
Rising of cod water from the deep; replaces warmer surface water.
What are Ocean currents and climates?
Current from low-latitude regions that transfer heat to high-latitude regions.
What is Upwelling caused by?
Wind.
What does Upwelling do?
Brings concentrations of dissolved nutrients to the surface. Supports the fish population.
What are Density Currents?
Vertical currents of ocean water.
What can evaporation cause?
The salinity to increase which cause density currents.
What is the Conveyor Belt?
Ocean circulation.
Where does the Conveyor Belt go?
It travels through the Atlantic Ocean and then the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and then back again.
What does warm water do when it reaches the poles?
Its temperature drops and it becomes more dense.
What is a wave?
Energy traveling along a boundary between ocean and atmosphere.
What do most waves obtain energy from?
Wind.
What is the crest?
The top of a wave, separated by troughs.
What is the Wave Height?
Distance between the crest and the trough.
What is the Wavelength?
Distance between two consecutive crests and troughs.
What is the Wave Period?
The time it takes a wave length to pass a fixed point.
What do waves do as they reach land?
They slow down.
Other waves catch up and________ the wavelength. The wave gets higher.
decrease.
When does a wave break?
Once it cannot support the weight anymore.
What is a surf?
Turbulent water caused by breaking waves.
What is a Swash?
Water that moves up beach from the break.
Waves are constantly _______,_______, and _______ sediment.
Weathering, eroding, and depositing.
Storms cause…
More erosion
What is Abrasion?
Sawing and grinding action of rock fragments.
What is Wave Refraction?
Bending of waves.
How do waves hit the shore?
They hit the shore at an angle.
What are Longshore Currents?
Flow parallel to shore and move in large amounts of sediment.
Longshore currents typically flow…
Southward
What is Streamflow?
Gravity that influences the way water make its way to the ocean.
The time the journey takes depends on the _______ of the stream.
velocity
What is a gradient?
The slope or steepness of a stream channel.
What is Discharge?
Water flowing past a certain point in a given unit of time.
What does discharge do?
Increases runoff and reduces the amount of water absorbed by soil.
What are Headwaters?
Source of a river.
What is the Mouth?
Point where the river empties into another body of water.
What part of a river has the higher velocity?
The mouth.
What is the Base Level?
The lowest point to which a stream can erode.
What is a meander?
A winding channel.
When does deposition occur?
The streamflow drops below the settling velocity of a certain particle size.
What is a Delta?
A accumulation of Sediment formed when a stream enters a lake, ocean, or another way.
What is a Natural Levee
A ridge made up mostly of a coarse sediments that parallels a stream.
What is the belt of Soil Moisture?
Zone near the surface that remains saturated.
What does most water do until it reaches the zone of saturation?
It seeps downward.
What is a water table?
Seperates the zone of saturation and the zone of aeration.
What is Groundwater?
The water in the zone of saturation.
What is Porosity?
The percentage of rock that consists of pore spaces.
What is a cavern?
A naturally formed underground chamber.
What are two environmental problems with Groundwater?
1.) Overuse and contamination
2.) Ground can sink when the water is pumped from wells faster than it can be replaced.
Water with carbonic acid will dissolve_______ very easily.
Limestone.
What is Karst Topography?
An area that has a land surface or topography with numerous depressions called sinkholes.
What is a sinkhole?
A depression produced in a region where groundwater has removed soluble rock.
Karst regions lack______.
surface drainage
