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INT D 280 - DONE > Lesson 5: Water Towers > Flashcards

Lesson 5: Water Towers Flashcards

1
Q

What is hydrology?

A

The science that looks at understanding, describing, and predicting how water moves across the landscape and through the atmosphere.

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2
Q

At least ___ of the world’s population is intimately connected to mountain hydrology.

A

1/2

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3
Q

Video:

What are some of the major rivers in the world?

A
  • Nile in Africa
  • Rhine in Europe
  • Indus in India and Pakistan
  • Yangtze in China
  • Mekong in SE Asia
  • Murray in Australia
  • Colombia and Mississippi in NA
  • Amazon in SA
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4
Q

Video:

What major civilization were born along rivers?

A
  • Mesopotamia between Tigress and Euphrates rivers(middle east)
  • Ancient Egypt along Nile
  • Great Chinese along Yellow and Yangtze rivers
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5
Q

Video:

BC meets nearly ___% of its energy needs through hydroelectricity.

A

90%

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6
Q

Mountains are often considered to be the ___ ___ of the world, storing and providing fresh water.

A

Water towers

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7
Q

Video:

As civilizations have expanded, the demand on rivers has grown. Give an example.

A
  • Colorado river which flows out of central rocky mountains through Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, CA, and into Mexico
  • Arid regions
  • Dammed for most of its length and almost every drop is allocated.
  • 90% is diverted before it reaches the Mexican border
  • Rarely reaches its delta in the Gulf of CA
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8
Q

The Ganzie river that flows through India and Bangladesh is the most sacred of rivers to all ___.

A

Hindus

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9
Q

What is a watershed?

A

Land that drains into a common water body.

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10
Q

Healthy watersheds perform important regulating ecosystem services that influence water quantity and quality. Describe.

A
  • Soils act as a sponge, soaking up precipitation in a process called infiltration
  • Vegetation increases infiltration because it slows surface runoff, allowing more time for water to seep into ground, minimizing erosion and flooding
  • Add to groundwater, regulating consistent flow
  • Clean and filter water supplies, with soil, sediment, plants, and microbes removing harmful pollutants, toxins, pesticides, and heavy metals (Silt particles settling in forests take out pollutants)
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11
Q

Video:

What are debris flows?

A

Fast moving masses of saturated rocks and sediment and organic material.

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12
Q

Video:

Give an example of flooding from mountains effecting far off communities.

A

In Spring of 2013, Calgary experienced devistating flooding in 24 hrs. Caused insurance damages exceeding 5 bil.

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13
Q

Video:

Give example of importance of maintaining watersheds.

A
  • Catskill mountains of E US
  • forests that provided purified water to NY city were cut down
  • deteriorated quality of water
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14
Q

Rain tends to fall at higher elevation because of orographic conditions. What are 2 different types of systems that can cause rainfall in mountains?

A
  1. Frontal rainfall, low-pressure systems move in from elsewhere and are forced to travel over mountains (can be prolonged)
  2. Locally formed convective storms, result of strong daytime heating on land, causes evaporation and condensation as water vapour rises and cools (Shorter periods, hail, strong winds)
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15
Q

What time of year does frontal and convective precipitation typically occur?

A
  • Frontal: any time of yr

- Convective: limited to periods when it is hot enough to cause strong evaporation during the day

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16
Q

Video:

What time of yr does rain typically form in mountains?

A

Due to high elevations, late spring, summer, and early fall. To cold at other times.

17
Q

What time of year is snow the predominant precipitation in many mountains (even equatorial)?

A

Winter, late fall and early spring.

18
Q

Snow provides for the short-term storage of water delaying most run-off until ___.

A

Spring

19
Q

Fresh snow is a very good insulator (90% air, low density) and snow resting directly on the ground will often tend to be ___ than snow exposed to the air.

A

Warmer.

Top 30-40 cm, especially if exposed to cold air.

20
Q

The density of snow can affect its temperature profile, since the insulating ability of snow ___ with its density.

A

Decreases.

Fresh snow is 90% air, low density.

21
Q

Video:
Once the snow begins to melt, how the water travels over the landscape will be partially controlled by the snow’s ___ ___.

A

Temperature profile (i.e. whether ground was exposed to freezing before snow fell or duration of winter)

22
Q

Video:

Snowmelt is determined by what 2 factors?

A
  1. Time of Season

2. Temperature

23
Q

Video:

What is the albedo (measure of reflectivity of surface) of fresh snow?

A

Reflects ~90% incoming solar rad.

24
Q

Much of the initial E from the sun in spring is contributed to warming the snowpack, so there tends to be a lag between warming of the atmosphere and melting of the snow and related runoff. What happens when the snow begins to melt?

A

There is a positive feedback.
As snow wars, water will build up in snowpack. Water has a lower albedo than snow and thus less energy is reflected, encouraging more melt.
Airborne deposited dust also encourages melt as it is darker

25
Q

Glacier melt is highly seasonal and as the surface of glaciers melt, they also experience a reduction in albedo that can accelerate melting late in the ___.

A

Summer

26
Q

What is rock flour?

A

Very fine sediment, formed by the grinding action of glaciers as they move over their rocky bed surface.

27
Q

What is groundwater?

A

Groundwater is another component of the hydrological cycle.
Groundwater is water that fills the pore spaces and fractures in rocks and sediment.
Top of saturated zone is water table.

28
Q

Vegetation plays several roles in determining how run-off moves through the mountain landscape. What are they?

A
  1. Leaves and branches reduce the amount that hits the ground
  2. Absorbing water through the roots
  3. Transpiration (process by which water is taken up by plants and evaporated out of their leaves and stems; evapotranspiration is another part of hydro. cycle)
29
Q

Alpine plants and forests help with…?

A
  • Water storage
  • Preventing oversaturation
  • Can delay runoff
30
Q

Mountains have high rates of erosion because of …?

A

Exposed bedrock, loose sediment, and patchy vegetation.

After millions of years, can turn mountains like Himalaya into rolling hills like Appalachians.

31
Q

Describe the Bow Rover run-off regime and diurnal signals.

A

-Little streamflow in early May (groundwater almost sole source)
-Increase dramatically late July through to September
-Diurnal/ daily signal becomes more prominent later in season.
-Increase in river flow in spring from melting snow
-Later, rain is more frequent. Diurnal signal here is related to snow melting more strongly during the day
-Mid-summer, rain contribution has increased from convection precipitation and rapid increase from glacier ice
Late summer, glaciers dominate river flow, but diurnal signal decreases in Sept as days begin to cool

32
Q

What are glacier lake outburst floods?

A
  • If one glacier advances, or surges, across the trunk valley, it may block flow from coming down that valley from another glacier, and form a lake.
  • The lake will rise until it becomes deep enough to burst through the glacier blocking it
33
Q

Video:

Give an example of a trunk valley.

A

St. Elias mountains of Yukon or neighboring Alaskan range (large glaciated landscapes)

34
Q

Give some examples of glacial lake outburst floods.

A
  • In Karakorum Range of Pakistan, destroyed hydroelectric dam and in 2013, destroyed town of Kedarnath, killing thousands
  • Cordillera Blanca of Peru, 3 floods in 1940s killing 10,000 people
  • Imja Tsho has been identified as one of the potentially dangerous takes in Himalaya (High Mountain Watershed program met with village leaders to discuss threat)
  • Neoglacial lake Alsek in Kluane national park (Yukon), Lowell (Naludi) glacier would block creating lake over 100 km long and 100 m deep (1850)
  • Altai Mountains of Central Asia, largest inland tidal wave ever recorded
35
Q

Give an example of a legacy pollutant.

A

Organic chemical, pesticides like dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT)

36
Q

Legacy pollutants in ice are well documented in mountain regions. Give examples.

A
  • Ice core taken from snowdome peak on Columbia icefield in Canadian Rockies shows a profile through time of deposition of chemicals and how they accumulated over decades
  • Similar process in Himalayas in Asia, contributes PCBs and PAHs in the surface water of the Ganges river plains during dry season
37
Q 
Tech tip (Matt Peter):
What are some tools to stay found?
A

Map and compass, altimeter (elevation reference), GPS(satellites), GPS app on phone linked to satellite capable Personal Locator Beacon

38
Q

Geography exercise:

Lesson 5?

A
  • Indus River (S Asia)
  • Mekong River (SE Asia)
  • Amazon River (SA)
  • Bow River (AB)
  • Nile River (NE Africa)
  • Coast Mountains (Pacific Coast Range of W NA)
  • Rhine River (C and W Europe)
  • Catskills Mountains (SE New York)
  • Colorado River (SW US and N Mexico)

Others:

  • Alsek River (Alaska, N BC, Yukon)
  • Lowell Glacier (Yukon)
  • Karakorum Range (borders China, India, Pakistan)
  • Nepal-China Highway (borders China, Nepal)
  • Snow Dome (Columbian icefield, BC)

INT D 280 - DONE (12 decks)

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