The Water Cycle

Question 1

What is atmospheric water?

Answer 1

Water found in the atmosphere; is mainly water vapour with some liquid water (cloud and rain droplets) and ice crystals.

Question 2

What is cryospheric water?

Answer 2

The water that is locked up on the earth’s surface as ice.

Question 3

Hydrosphere meaning?

Answer 3

A discontinuous layer of water at or near the earth’s surface. It includes all liquid and frozen surface waters, groundwater held in soil and rock and atmospheric water vapour.

Question 4

What is Oceanic water?

Answer 4

The water contained in the Earth’s oceans and seas but not including such inland seas as the Caspian sea.

Question 5

What is terrestrial water?

Answer 5

This consists of groundwater, soil, moisture, lakes, wetlands and rivers.

Question 6

The total amount of water in the hydrosphere.

Answer 6

1.338 x 10⁹ km³. It is thought that approximately 97% of this is oceanic water. Freshwater, the remaining 3%, is locked up in ice, glaciers and permafrost (cryospheric water), groundwater, lakes, soil, wetlands, rivers, rivers, biomass (terrestrial water) and atmospheric water.

Question 7

Average depth of oceanic water.

Answer 7

3,683m.

Question 8

Oceanic water.

Answer 8

The oceans cover approximately 72% of the planet’s surface, divided into 7 principal oceans and smaller seas. Oceanographers have only explored 5%.

Question 9

The make up of oceanic water (pH)

Answer 9

It is salty because it contains dissolved salts, these allow the water to stay liquid below 0 degrees. They are alkaline- avg pH of about 8.14. The pH has fallen from approximately 8.25 in the last 250 years and appears to be destined to continue falling. The pH change is linked to the increase in atmospheric carbon and may have a profound influence on marine ecosystems- coral reefs.

Question 10

The five locations of cryospheric water.

Answer 10

Sea ice- the Ross ice shelf.
Permafrost- the Alaska North slope.
Alpine glaciers- Mer de Glace, France.
Ice sheets- the Greenland ice sheet.
Ice caps- the Iceland ice cap.

Question 11

Sea ice.

Answer 11

Sea ice does not raise sea level when it melts, because it forms from ocean water. it is closely linked to our ocean’s climate, so scientists are concerned with its recent decline.

Question 12

Ice shelves.

Answer 12

Platforms of ice form where ice sheets and glaciers move out into the oceans. Mostly exist in Antarctica and Greenland as well as in the arctic near Canada and Alaska.

Question 13

Icebergs.

Answer 13

Chunks of ice that break off glaciers and ice shelves and drift in the ice. They only raise the sea level when they first leave the land and push into the water, not when they melt.

Question 14

Ice sheets.

Answer 14

Mass of glacial land ice extending more than 50,000km (squared). Two major ice sheets on Earth today cover most of Greenland and Antarctica. Together, the Antarctic and Greenland are more than 99% of the freshwater ice on Earth.

Question 15

Ice caps.

Answer 15

They are thick layers of ice on land that are smaller than 50,000km². Often found in mountainous areas. Ice caps tend to be dome-shaped and are centred over the highest point of an upland area. They flow outwards, covering almost everything in their path- the biggest source for man glaciers.
Where- the Himalayas, the Rockies, the Andes, and the Southern Alps of New Zealand.

Question 16

Alpine glaciers.

Answer 16

Thick masses of ice are found in deep valleys or upland hollows.
Mostly fed by ice caps or smaller corrie glaciers.
These glaciers are particularly important in the Himalayas- 15,000 Himalayan glaciers form a unique reservoir which is the lifeline for millions of people in South Asian countries.

Question 17

Permafrost.

Answer 17

Ground that remains below 0 degrees for at least two consecutive years. Most of today’s permafrost formed in the Holocene (the last 10,000 years) and during the Ice age.

Question 18

What four categories does terrestrial water fall into?

Answer 18

-Surface water
-Groundwater
-Soil water
-Biological water

Question 19

Surface water- Rivers.

Answer 19

Both the storage and transfer of water, are streams of water in a defined channel. Rivers make up 0.0002% of all water.

Question 20

Surface water- Lakes.

Answer 20

Collections of fresh water found in hollows on the land surface.

Question 21

Surface water- Wetlands.

Answer 21

Ramsar Convention defines wetlands as ‘areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing where there is a dominance by vegetation.’

Question 22

Surface water- Groundwater.

Answer 22

Water collects underground in the pore spaces of rock.

Question 23

Surface water- Soil water.

Answer 23

Held together with air in unsaturated upper weathered layers of the earth.

Question 24

Surface water- Biological water.

Answer 24

Water is stored in the biomass. It varies widely around the globe depending on the vegetation cover and type.

Question 25

Condensation.

Answer 25

The process by which water vapour changes to liquid water.

Question 26

Evaporation.

Answer 26

The process by which liquid water changes to gas.

Question 27

Interception storage.

Answer 27

Precipitation that falls on the vegetation services or human-made cover and is temporarily stored on these surfaces.

Question 28

Overland flow.

Answer 28

The tendency of water to flow horizontally across land surfaces when rainfall has exceeded the infiltration capacity of the soil and all surface stores are full to overflowing.

Question 29

Percolation.

Answer 29

The downward movement of water within the rock under the soil surface.

Question 30

Run-off.

Answer 30

All the water enters a river channel and eventually flows out of the drainage basin.

Question 31

Saturated.

Answer 31

This applies to any water store that has reached its maximum capacity.

Question 32

Stemflow.

Answer 32

The portion of precipitation intercepted by the canopy that reaches the ground by flowing down stems, stalks or tree bole.