Midterm Flashcards
What is fresh water?
Glaciers and ice caps 68.6%+ groundwater 30.1%+surface water and other freshwater 1.3%
What is the total global water?
96.5% of oceans +saline lakes 0.07%+saline ground 0.93% + freshwater 2.5%
What’s surface water and other freshwater?
Ice and snow 73.1%+ lakes 20.1%+ soil moisture+ swamps and marshes 2.53%+ revers 0.46%+ biological water 0.22%+ atmospheric water 0.22%
Percent of useable water, groundwater, lakes, rivers and water useable by humans
99% of unusable 1% of water useable by humans 99% of groundwater 0.86% of lakes 0.02% of rivers
What’s water?
It is :
Bipolar, adhesive( sticks to charged surfaces), Hightower surface tension( attraction to itself), low viscosity, transparent, capillary( controls water in the vadose zone), also universal solvent( salts, acids, sugar, oxygen, carbonate), high heat capacity( high boiling and melting point) and 3 distinct phases( solid, liquid, gas)
What’s hydrogeology ?
The study of the occurrence, movement, distribution of geological interaction of water in the earth’s crust.
What’s hydrology?
The study of the occurrence and movement of water on and over the earth’s surface.
What’s groundwater?
Water in the pore spaces of the surface below the water table.
Whats water table?
A boundary between the zone of saturation and the zone of unsaturated.
What’s the saturated zone?
It’s below the water table all spore space is saturated with water.
Whats the surface water bodies?
Are areas where the water table intersects the earth’s surface.
Groundwater flows…
(Slowly) though pore space and cracks, pulled by gravity and pushed by the force of water above and behind it.
What’s recharge area?
an area where water enters the aquifer moving downward from the surface to the water table.
What’s discharge area?
The area where the water exists the aquifer
Groundwater contributes:
> 50% of the domestic water supply of the USA
Over 30% of the Canadian domestic water supply
Over 80% of our rural water supply
23% of Alberta’s water
40%of Canadian municipalities
Famous examples of aquifer ‘mis’ use:
- Mexico City ( compaction of aquifer has led to differential subsidence)
- holland ( drained for agriculture)
- cenotes( dissolution and collapse features common in the yucatan peninsula)
- disappearance of the Everglades.
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Application for hydrogeology:
- water resources and supply
- groundwater quality and remediation
- mineral and petroleum accumulations
- geologic and geomorphic process
What’s the water cycle?
The continuous circulation of water between ocean, atmosphere and land both on the surface and within the surface.
What is transmissivity?
It’s the rate at which groundwater flows horizontally through an aquifer.
What’s storativity?
It’s the volume of the water released from the storage per unit decline in hydraulic head.
What’s residence times?
It’s the average time required to replace an entire volume with new water. ( variability of water quality and quantity)
What’s the surface environment ?
- comprised of porous media( ie un consolidated media)
- pores may contain water and or air( near surface contain both fluids unsaturated(vadose) or aerated) (also deeper regions contain only water the saturated (phreatic zone)
What’s the capillary fringe? And what’s its height?
It’s a subsurface layer which groundwater flow from the water table to fill pores by a capillary action, pores are filled with water due to the tension saturation. The height of capillary is related to the pore size( small pore= large fringe)
What’s an aquifer? Types of Aquifer?
It’s a permeable material where water flows and storage( limestone,sandstone and gravel).
2 types: unconfined and confined
Unconfined: an aquifer where the water table is upper boundary also called phreatic aquifer.
Confined: it’s an aquifer bound by aquitards( bed rock aquifer)
What’s a perched aquifer?
It’s a special type located above the regional water table due to low permeability layer beneath it
Whats an artesian aquifer?
occurs when there is positive hydraulic head in the aquifer, when an aquifer’s recharge area is higher in elevation than the drainage point. This allows the porous aquifer to have a positive pressure and possibly even flow water to the ground.
whats hydraulic head?
it is the sum between elevation and pressure head
flowing artesian aquifer?
an aquifer with positive hydraulic head that will discharge to the surfaceT