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Geog - Water and Carbon Cycles > Water - On Earth > Flashcards

Water - On Earth Flashcards

1
Q

What is the hydrosphere?

A

Water close to, or on the Earth’s surface.

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2
Q

How much water is in the hydrosphere?

A

1.338 X 10^9 km^3.

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3
Q

How much of the hydrosphere is oceanic water?

A

Around 97%.

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4
Q

How much of the hydrosphere is fresh water?

A

3%.

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5
Q

What does fresh water include?

A

Cryospheric water, terrestrial water, and atmospheric water.

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6
Q

What are some examples of cryospheric water?

A

Land ice, glaciers, permafrost.

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7
Q
A
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8
Q

What are some examples of terrestrial water?

A

Groundwater, lakes, soil, wetland, rivers, biomass.

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9
Q

What are some examples of atmospheric water?

A

Water vapour.

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10
Q

How much water vapour is in the atmosphere?

A

12,900 km cubed.

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11
Q

True or false, the amount of water in the hydrospheric stores is in dynamic equillibrium?

A

True.

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12
Q

How much water is stored in oceanic water?

A

Between 1,320,000,000 to 1,370,000,000 km cubed.

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13
Q

How much of the Earth’s surface does oceanic water cover?

A

Around 72%.

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14
Q

How much of Earth’s water does the ocean contain?

A

97%.

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15
Q

Around how much of the ocean has been discovered?

A

Around 5%.

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16
Q

What is the average pH of oceanic water?

A

8.14 making it alkaline.

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17
Q

What is the significance of salt in oceanic water?

A

The dissolved salts decrease the water’s freezing point allowing it to stay liquid below 0 degrees.

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18
Q

What has the pH in oceanic water fallen from in the past 250 years?

A

8.25 to 8.14.

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19
Q

What causes the change in pH in oceanic water?

A

The increase in atmospheric carbon.

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20
Q

What are the 5 locations of cryospheric water and give examples?

A

Sea Ice - Ross Ice Shelf.
Permafrost - Alaska North Slope.
Alpine Glaciers - Mar De Glace, France.
Ice Sheets - Greenland Ice Sheet.
Ice Caps - Iceland Ice Cap.

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21
Q

How does sea ice form?

A

When water in the oceans is cooled to temperatures below freezing.

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22
Q

Why doesn’t sea ice raise sea level when it melts?

A

Because it forms from the ocean water.

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23
Q

What are ice shelves?

A

Platforms of ice which form where ice sheets and glaciers move out onto the ocean.

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24
Q

Where do ice shelves most commonly exist?

A

In Antarctica, Greenland and the Arctic near Canada and Alaska.

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25
What are icebergs?
Chunks of ice which break off of glaciers and ice shelves which have drifted off into the ocean.
26
What is an ice sheet?
A mass of glacial land ice extending more than 50,000 km squared.
27
Where are the two major ice sheets located?
Covering Greenland and Antarctica.
28
How much of total global freshwater does the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets contain?
99%.
29
How big is the Antarctic ice sheet?
Almost 14 million km squared. (Roughly the area of the USA and Mexico combined).
30
How big is the Greenland ice sheet?
Abou 1.7 million km squared, covering most of the island of Greenland.
31
Where do ice sheets form?
In areas where snow fall in winter does not completely melt in summer.
32
How do ice sheets form?
Over thousands of years, layers of snow pile into thick masses of ice, growing thicker and denser as the weight of the snow compresses older layers.
33
What is an ice stream?
Movement of ice moving through fast outlets on the coast.
34
How much would global sea level rise by if the Greenland ice sheet melted?
6 metres.
35
How much would global sea level rise by if the Antarctic ice sheet melted?
60 metres.
36
What is an ice cap?
Thick layers of ice on land which are smaller than 50,000 km squared.
37
What is the difference between an ice sheet and an ice cap?
An ice sheet is bigger than 50,000 km squared whereas an ice cap is smaller than 50,000 km squared.
38
Where do ice caps more commonly form?
In mountainous areas.
39
What is Africa's only remaining ice cap and where is it?
The Furtwangler Glacier on Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
40
How large is the Furtwangler Glacier?
60,000 m squared.
41
What are alpine glaciers?
Thick masses of ice found in deep valleys or in upland hollows.
42
Why are apline glaciers so important in the himalayas?
15,000 himalayan glaciers form a unique resevoir which supports perennial rivers such as the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra which in turn supply millions with water in South Asia.
43
What is a perennial river?
A river which flows all year round.
44
What is permafrost?
Ground which remains at or below 0 degrees for at least two consecutive years.
45
What is the range for permafrost thickness?
Less than one metre to more than 1,500 metres
46
When did most of the permafrost which exists today form?
During cold glacial periods including the Holocene (last 10,000 years).
47
What is happening to permafrost?
It is melting.
48
What happens when permafrost melts?
It releases large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, potentially affecting global climates.
49
What is surface water?
Free- flowing water of rivers as well as the water of ponds and lakes.
50
How do rivers act as both a store and transfer of water?
They transfer water from the soils and the atmosphere into a single store.
51
What percentage of all water is contained in a river?
0.0002%.
52
Which river has the largest discharge?
The Amazon.
53
What is the Amazon river's discharge rate?
209,000 m^3/s. This is greater than the next seven largest independant rivers combined.
54
What is a lake?
Collections of fresh water found in hollows and on the land surface. Generally over two hectares in area.
55
What is the difference between a pond and a lake?
A pond is less than two hectares in area. A lake is greater than two hectares in area.
56
How many lakes does Canada have which are larger than 3 km squared?
An estimated 31,752.
57
How many lakes does Canada have?
Over 2 million.
58
What is the largest lake on Earth?
The Caspian Sea.
59
How old is the Caspian Sea?
5.5 million years old.
60
What / where is the deepest lake in the world?
Lake Baikal in Siberia.
61
What is the mean depth of Lake Baikal?
749m.
62
How deep is the deepest point of Lake Baikal?
1,637m.
63
How did The Ramsar Convention define wetlands?
'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.'
64
What species type can wetlands support?
Aquatic and terrestrial.
65

Geog - Water and Carbon Cycles (13 decks)

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