Grade 8 Water Science Flashcards
How is water useful?
Transportation, hydration, cleaning
What is the difference between freshwater and saltwater?
Freshwater is drinkable. Saltwater has about 3.5% dissolved salt.
How much freshwater is accessible?
About 1%
What countries have a lot of freshwater?
Canada, Brazil, Russia, USA, China
Is water something everyone has?
Water is not something everyone has, for example only about 21% of people in the Congo have access to freshwater
What are glaciers?
Massive Masses of ice that move slowly down a mountain slope
What is gaseous water?
Water in a gas form. Vapour, steam
What does the water cycle have to do with freshwater?
The water that evaporates loses any salt from in it when it precipitates the rain is freshwater.
What’s heat capacity?
The ability of a substance to hold heat.
Can you give an example of heat capacity?
The water in a lake stays warmer longer than the air but it takes longer to heat up.
What effect does heat capacity have on temperature?
Places closer to water will have different temperature than places farther away from the water. (these are called “microclimates”)
What’s an interglacial period?
When it is not a cooling period, but it is also not a warming period.
How does the “greenhouse effect” come into play?
Step 1. Solar energy comes into atmosphere.
Step 2. Solar energy creates infrared heat.
Step 3. Some heat escapes into space, most heat stays in atmosphere.
The ozone the layer that keeps the heat in is getting thinner letting in more solar energy, which creates more heat.
Is our planet ice melting?
It is slowly melting right now but, we are in an interglacial period.
Why is recharge crucial to our freshwater supply?
The more times freshwater gets used without getting recharged brings us closer and closer to “Day Zero”(when there is no more freshwater)
What natural and human factors affect water levels?
2 Each factor
Natural 1. Droughts (when it doesn’t rain for a while and an area runs out of water)
Natural 2. Flooding (when it rains too much that rivers and lakes over flow)
Human 1. Over use of wells (when a well dug into the ground runs out of water)
Human 2. Agriculture and Industry (farmers use over use water on crops)
How can we classify contaminants?
Biological (algae, bacteria), Chemical (lead, mercury), Physical (animal waste, garbage)
What is bioremediation?
When bacteria cleans up waste before it causes a problem in the water.
