Water EQ1 Flashcards
What is a store?
A store is an areas where water is held e.g. oceans.
What is a a fluxe?
The rate if flow between different stores.
What is a a process?
The physical mechanisms which drive the fluxes of water between stores.
Why is the global hydrological systems classes as a ‘closed’ system?
It is a closed system as there are no external input and outputs meaning the total volume of water is constant and finite.
What is a the global hydrological system?
The circulation of water around the earth.
What drives the global hydrological system?
The power threat fives the global hydrological system comes from two sources
- solar energy (in the form of heat)
- gravitational potential energy (causing rivers and water to flow down hill and precipitation to fall to the ground)
Why are the main types of stores and there percentage contribution?
Oceans - 97%
Cryosphere - 1.9%
Ground water - 1.1%
Rivers and lakes - 0.01%
Soil moisture - 0.01% (biosphere)
Atmospheric moisture - 0.001%
What is blue water?
Water stirred in rivers, streams, lakes and groundwater in liquid form (visible part of hydrological cycle)
What is green water?
Water stores in the soil and vegetation (invisible part of hydrological cycle)
What are the major fluxes in the hydrological system?
Precipitation > movement of water in any form from the atmosphere to the the ground
Evaporation > the change in state of water from liquid to gas
What is fossils water?
Ancient, deep groundwater from formed pluvial(wetter) periods which has a very long residency time and not renewable.
What’s is the residency time for each of the stores?
Oceans - 3,600 years
Icecaps - 15,000 years
Groundwater - 100/200 up to 10,000 years
Rivers and lakes - 2 weeks to 10 years
Soil moisture - 2 to 50 weeks
Atmospheric moisture - 10 days
What is transpiration?
The diffusion of water from vegetation into the atmosphere, involving a change from gas to liquid.
What is the global water budget?
The global wage budget takes into account all the water that is held in stores and flows of the global hydrological cycle annually (the amount of water available)
E.g. only 2.5% of total water on earth is fresh water and most of it is inaccessible for human use.
What is a residence time?
The average time a molecule of water will spend in a store.
Which water stores are non- renewable?
- Fossils water
- The cryosphere losses
Why is most of earths water unavailable for human usages?
- only 2.5% of global water is freshwater
- 69% do the available fresh water is locked up in ice caps ect which is found at high latitudes and high altitude conditions making is inaccessible
- 30 % of fresh water is found in groundwater, where some of its very deep (fossil water) and therefor also inaccessible
What is the drainage basin?
The drainage basin is a sub system within the global hydrological cycle. It is the area of land drained by a river and its tributaries.
It is an open system as it has external inputs and outputs that varies the amount of water in the basin over time.
What is the watershed?
The boundary of a drainage basin, it divides and separates waters flowing to different rivers.
What are the main input into a hydrological system?
The main input into the hydrological cycle is predication which can varies in type and amount.
What is needed for predication to fall?
- air cooled to saturation point
- a condensation nuclei to facilitate the growth of droplets in clouds
- a temperature below dew point
How does precipitation vary in the drainage basin hydrological cycle?
- amount of precipitation (impacts drainage discharge and fluxes)
- type of precipitation (snow can act as a temporary store and large fluxes of water can be released at once when melted and entry into the drainage system fast or delayed)
- seasonality (monsoons)
- intensity of precipitation (ground water flow and infiltration effected, flooding risk p)
- variability (secular (long term), periodic (annually/seasonally) and stochastic (random, thunderstorms)
- distribution of precipitation (in large drainage basins tributaries can start in different climate zones)
What is convectional rainfall and is it formed?
Happens in hot climates and tropical areas where
1. The earths hot surface heats the air above it
2. The heated air rises, expands and cools at the dew point. Condensation takes place.
3. Further ascent causes more expansion and rain takes place.
What is orographic rainfall and how does it take place?
When air is forced to rise over a barrier (mountains), it cooled and condenses at the dew point forming rain on the wind ward slopes. A rain shadow takes place where the leeward slope receives little rainfall.
What is frontal rainfall and how does it form?
This is where warm air (lighter and less dense) is forced to rise over cold denser air. As it rises the air reaches the dew point and it’s ability to hold water vapour is decreased and condensation occurs.
What are the main flows in a drainage basin?
- interception (retention of water by plants and soils)
- infiltration ( water travels vertically into soil)
- percolation (vertical movement of water through permeable rocks)
- through flow (lateral movement of water downslope through soil)
- groundwater (transfer of percolated water though rock laterally)
- surface runoff (water on the surface of the ground)
- river and channel flows
What is interception and what are the three main components?
Interception is the process by which water is stored in the vegetation. It three main components are
- interception loss
- through fall
- stem flow