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Geography A Level > The Water Cyle Definitions > Flashcards

The Water Cyle Definitions Flashcards

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1
Q

What is an anticyclone?

A

A system of high pressure, causing high temperatures and unseasonably high evaporation rates

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2
Q

What is an aquifer?

A

A permeable or porous rock which stores water

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3
Q

What is channel flow?

A

Water flowing in a rivulet, stream or river

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4
Q

What is convectional precipitation?

A

Solar radiation heats the air above the ground, causing it to rise, cool and condense forming precipitation (often as thunderstorms)

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5
Q

What is the cryosphere?

A

The global water volume locked up within a frozen state (i.e. snow and ice)

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6
Q

What is a depression?

A

A system of low pressure, with fronts of precipitation where low and high pressure air masses meet

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7
Q

What is a desalination plant?

A

The conversion of seawater to freshwater, suitable for human consumption

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8
Q

What is desublimation?

A

The change of state of water from gas to solid, without being a liquid (the opposite process to sublimation)

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9
Q

What is a drainage basin?

A

The area of land drained by a river and its tributaries

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10
Q

What is drainage density?

A

The total length of all rivers and streams divided by the area of the drainage basin

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11
Q

What is drought?

A

An extended period of deficient rainfall relative to the statistical average for the region

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12
Q

What is economic water scarcity?

A

When water resources are a available but insufficient economic wealth limits access to it

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13
Q

What is the ENSO cycles?

A

El Niño Southern Oscillations - naturally occurring phenomena that involves the movement of warm water in the Equatorial Pacific

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14
Q

What is evapotranspiration?

A

The combined total moisture transferred from the Earth to the atmosphere, through evaporation and transpiration

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15
Q

What is frontal precipitation?

A

Where air masses of different temperatures meet at a front, one mass will be forced over another, causing precipitation beneath the front

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16
Q

What is the Global hydrological cycle?

A

The continuous transfer of water between land, atmosphere and oceans. The earth is a closed system

17
Q

What is groundwater flow?

A

Water moving horizontally through permeable or porous rock due to gravity

18
Q

What is hydrological drought?

A

Insufficient soil moisture to meet the needs of vegetation at a particular time

19
Q

What is infiltration?

A

The movement of water vertically through the pores in soil

20
Q

What is integrated drainage basin management?

A

Establishing a frame of co ordinated efforts between administrations and stakeholders to achieve balanced management of a basin

21
Q

What is interception?

A

Raindrops are prevented from falling directly onto the ground, instead hitting the leaves of a tree

22
Q

What is meteorological drought?

A

When long-term precipitation trends are below average

23
Q

What is a monsoon?

A

The drastic variation between wet and dry seasons for sun tropical areas, caused by a changed or prevailing wind. Can lead to annual flooding

24
Q

What is an open system?

A

A system affected by external flows and inputs (such as a drainage basin, or sediment cell)

25
Q

What is percolation?

A

Water moving vertically from soil into permeable rock

26
Q

What is physical water scarcity?

A

A physical lack of available freshwater which cannot meet demand

27
Q

What is relief precipitation?

A

Precipitation caused when air masses are forced to rise over high land, determined by the relief/ morphology of the land

28
Q

What is a river regime?

A

The pattern of river discharge over a year

29
Q

What is runoff?

A

Water flowing over the surface of the ground

30
Q

What is salinisation?

A

Where salt water contaminated freshwater stores or soils, creating saline conditions and reducing human use/ consumption

31
Q

What is salt water encroachment?

A

The movement of saltwater into freshwater aquifers of soils. This may be caused by sea level rise, storm surges or over-extraction

32
Q

What is smart irrigation?

A

Providing crops with a water supply less than optimal, to make crops resistant to water shortages

Geography A Level (16 decks)

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