The Hydrosphere Flashcards
What is the hydrosphere?
The Earth’s outer layer of water (solid, liquid, and gas forms).
What is a catchment area?
It is an area where all lakes and rivers flow into the same larger body of water. Catches all rain water in this area.
What is a watershed?
It is where water flows downwards (from slopes or higher grounds) into the basin.
Name some human disturbances on watersheds.
Hydroelectric power plants, contaminants upstream…
What factors influence the temperature of water?
The seasons, the latitude and the depth.
Where are the oceans less salty?
At the poles because the frseh water caps melt into these oceans.
How do the oceans become salty?
The erosion of the lithosphere (minerals dissolving and running off into the water).
How are surface currents generated?
They are generated by the wind.
Explain surface surface currents.
It is the horizontal movement of the top 400m of ocean water.
What influences deep currents?
The temperature and salinity of the water.
Explain deep currents.
It is the vertical movement of the water caused by the changing density of water. For example, cold or very salty water is very dense and thus sinks, creating a current as it goes down. These movements happen 800m below the surface.
What is thermohaline?
It is the combination of surface currents and deep water currents, resulting in ocean circulation thus regulating the temperature and salinity of the oceans. It mixes water worldwide thus regulating the climate and overall temperature.
What is the cryoshpere?
It is the layer of ice on Earth.
What is an ice floe?
It is ice that floats in the ocean, formed by the freezing of cold water, and which breaks off into sheets.
What is a glacier?
They are made out of compressed snow on land. When they fall into the ocean, they are called icebergs.
How does melting ice affect the ocean and the planet?
It disturbs thermohaline currents, increases the sea level and accelerates climate change globally.
What is hydraulic energy?
It is energy that is created from the natural movement of water (dams, turbines).
What is tidal energy?
It is energy created by the movement of the tides (turbines).
How are tides created?
Gravitational pull and inertia work in opposition, which creates tidal bulges on opposite sides of the planet. The ocean facing the moon is pulled by the moon’s gravity while on the opposite side of the planet, inertia creates another bulge.
