Week 6 Water (10/1-10/3) Flashcards
What are some special properties of water?
- good solvent
- high surface tension
- high heat capacity
- liquid state denser than solid
- transparent (sun penetration allows for photosynthesis)
- available in three states
What does water do?
- enables life
- defined by water availability
- agriculture/ electricity
- makes sedimentary rocks (weathering)
- moderates temperature/climate
what is hydrology?
study of water and its many forms on the planet
What is the water cycle?
- evaporates from ocean
- condenses into clouds and rains
- runoff into stream, infiltration into ground, vegetation interception
- plants transpire
- evaporation from ground
What does ground infiltration do?
maintains water table
What is a water table?
the surface above which there is air in pores between grains of soil and rock but below there is no air
Why is the way water tables are formed convenient for wells?
What are effluent streams?
- Groundwater flows into the stream
- still have water despite drought
- form discharge zones
What are influent streams?
- get water from mountains
- bottom of stream is above the water table
- disappear during drought
- form recharge mounds
What is an aquifer?
- deep in ground
- below water table
- rocks transport water faster
What are aquicludes?
rocks that can’t transport water well
What are wetlands?
any place where the water table is at the ground surface
what is a water table?
saturated ground and rock
What do wetlands do for us?
filters contaminants preventing them from entering waterways/rivers
what is unique about wetland plants?
- rooted below the water table
- saturated
- light reaches them
what is the riparian zone?
ecosystem next to a stream
How are wetlands categorized?
water source
salt marsh
ocean
bog
rain
fen
groundwater
What is happening to wetlands? how are they regulated?
- they are being filled and drained
- can’t destroy one without building another of the same size
- its function isn’t restored
Where is most of the Earth’s water?
97% in oceans
Where is the Earth’s freshwater?
2% in ice and glaciers
How much water is in the atmosphere?
0.001%
What is absolute humidity?
- specific
- amount of water held in the atmosphere as vapor
What can warm air do that cold air can’t?
hold more water
What is relative humidity?
amount of water that’s dissolved in the air compared to its saturation concentration
what is the saturation concentration?
how much water the atmosphere can hold
How is rain made?
- convective cells: raise warm, moist air and cool it by decompression
- orographic effect: push air over a mountain (wet on one side and dry on the other)
- push two air masses together to force air up (cold fronts)
What is a stream?
any flowing body of water
EX. river, creek, brooks
What is an effluent stream?
- ground water feeds stream
- maintained during dry season
- perennial
- flows all year
- seepage into channel from subsurface
What is an influent stream?
- stream feeds groundwater
- flows in response to precipitation
- ephemeral
- above water table
What can rivers do?
move sediment along the bottom (roll/slide) or through saltation (jumping)
What is bedload?
stuff that moves along the bottom
What is suspended load?
- fine particles caught up in the water
- doesn’t sit still (water is turbulent)
- vertical velocity component is much more than settling velocity
what is dissolved load?
stuff in solution
