Part 1: Water

Question 1

1. Define Infiltration

Answer 1

Once water reaches the ground surface, it must either run off via streams and accumulate somewhere on the surface or move down through the soil in a process called infiltration.

Question 2

2. Where water goes when infiltrates

Answer 2

The infiltrated water filters to the subsurface through the vadose zone and eventually accumulates in the phreatic zone

Question 3

3. Define Permeability

Answer 3

The size of those pore spaces and how they are connected, allowing the water to move through, is permeability.

Question 4

4. Define porosity

Answer 4

Porosity is expressed as a percentage to indicate the amount of void or pore space in the rock or soil; it depends on the size, shape, and packing of the grains.

Question 5

5. Define Aquifer

Answer 5

An aquifer is a bed that stores and transmits groundwater in quantity in the pore spaces between the grains

Question 6

6. Define Confined Aquifer

Answer 6

If there are aquicludes above and below an aquifer, it is referred to as a confined aquifer, “confined” by the aquicludes.

(aquicludes: relatively impermeable bed that prevents the transmission of water above and below it).

Question 7

7. Ground water can be replenished. Define Discharge and Recharge and how they relate.

Answer 7

The “refilling” process is called recharge while the emptying is called discharge.

Ideally, recharge and discharge will occur at the same rates

Question 8

8. How are caverns are formed

Answer 8

The holes formed by the dissolution of the limestone forms caverns or caves

Question 9

9. Difference Between: Stalactite and Stalagmite.

Answer 9

Stalactites:
The drips will form stalactites, structures that resemble icicles.

Stalagmites:
look like the stalactites in reverse.

Question 10

10. Define karst-topography and what kind of land form do you see?

Answer 10

Karst landscapes form in areas with high rainfall and abundant vegetation, carbon dioxide-rich water, and jointed limestone.

Question 11

11. Define Sinkhole and how it forms

Answer 11

A sinkhole forms as a steep-sided depression over a cavernous limestone formation.

Question 12

12. How does ground water moves beneath surface, and how fast?

Answer 12

Water flows underground by moving from void space to void space very slowly, on the order of only a few centimeters a day in most aquifers. It flows much faster on the surface.

Question 13

13. What happens when you pump water out of an aquifer?

Answer 13

Pumping out the water, which we must do to sustain us, will create a cone of depression around the bottom of the well.

Question 14

14. Define Stream

Answer 14

Any flowing body of water, large or small, is called a stream

Question 15

15. Laminar and Turbulent Flow difference

Answer 15

laminar flow:
If the flow is slow, sheet-like, and parallel to a flat or gently-sloping streambed.

turbulent flow:
the water is moving with high energy, rolling and roiling over a broad and deep channel

Question 16

16. Define viscosity

Answer 16

The viscosity of the water depends on what kind, what size, and how much sediment is carried by the water. The higher the viscosity, the slower the velocity of the stream flow.

Question 17

17. What are the different category of sediments?

Answer 17

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Question 18

18. How can dunes can be formed in water and by wind.

Answer 18

The wind can form ripples and dunes, water can do the same. (Remember that water and wind are both considered fluids.)

Question 19

19. What effects the size and shapes of dunes

Answer 19

The higher the velocity of the water, the larger the structures formed: dunes are large as the result of higher energy/velocity, ripples are smaller and the result of slower-moving water.

Question 20

20. Define Saltation

Answer 20

Saltation is a way of moving material along the streambed by bouncing, giving the appearance that the grains or particles are intermittently jumping

Question 21

21. Define Meandering Landscape

Answer 21

If the flow is low energy, across a flat or very gently-sloping surface, the pattern will be meandering

Question 22

22. Braided Stream, what condition causes it?

Answer 22

braided is youthful and high energy

If the stream is flowing has a steeper gradient, high sediment load or highly-seasonal flow, the stream will have high energy and take on a braided appearance

Question 23

23. Continental Divide (Drainage Divide)

Answer 23

The highest point or ridge will act as a divider: water will only flow downhill from there. Every continent will have a region or regions that are higher or lower than others. This will nearly always act as a continental divide (Rocky Mountains).

Question 24

24. What determines and area will flood?

Answer 24

Whether or not an area will flood is determined by the size of the:

• drainage basin
• local topography
• climate of the region
• width of the floodplain
• size of the channel
• amount of rainfall
• and whether the surface over with the water falls or flows is paved or vegetated