Geography Terms Flashcards
What is the atmosphere?
The layer of gases which surrounds the Earth.
What is a drainage basin hydrological cycle?
The movement of water through a single river basin bounded by its own watershed and the sea.
What is evaporation?
Water warmed by the sun that turns into a gas.
What is evapotranspiration?
The loss of water from a drainage basin to the atmosphere from the leaves of plants.
What is groundwater flow?
The movement of water through underlying rock strata.
What is groundwater storage?
Water stored underground in permeable rock strata.
What does impermeable mean?
A surface which won’t allow water to pass through it.
What are drainage basin inputs?
Water entering the basin system: Precipitation including rain and snow, and solar energy for evaporation.
What is a river?
The main overland water channel within a larger drainage basin.
What is infiltration?
The movement of water downward into the soil surface.
What is interception?
Obstacles between precipitation reaching the ground, such as vegetation and buildings.
What is overland flow?
When water flows over the surface of the ground.
What are drainage basin outputs?
Water leaving the basin system: evaporation and transpiration from plants (evapotranspiration), runoff into the sea, percolation of water into underlying rock strata.
What does permeable mean?
A surface which will allow water to pass through it.
What is percolation?
The downward movement of water through underlying porous rock, collecting as groundwater.
What is precipitation?
Water falling from the atmosphere in any form.
What are rock strata?
Layers of rocks found beneath the Earth’s surface.
What does saturated mean?
When rock, soil or sand is completely full of water.
What is soil?
The ‘productive’ layer of the earth, made of weathered rock and decomposing organic material.
What are surface stores?
Puddles, rivers, lakes (surface storage), soil, groundwater storage and water stored in vegetation.
What is throughflow?
The movement of water within the soil laterally (sideways) towards the river.
What are transfers or flows?
Infiltration, Percolation, overland flow (streams & rivers), throughflow, groundwater flow.
What is the water table?
The top of the zone of saturation.
What is a watershed?
The boundary of the drainage basin.
