Week 6 Water (10/1-10/3)

Question 1

What are some special properties of water?

Answer 1

• good solvent
• high surface tension
• high heat capacity
• liquid state denser than solid
• transparent (sun penetration allows for photosynthesis)
• available in three states

Question 2

What does water do?

Answer 2

• enables life
• defined by water availability
• agriculture/ electricity
• makes sedimentary rocks (weathering)
• moderates temperature/climate

Question 3

what is hydrology?

Answer 3

study of water and its many forms on the planet

Question 4

What is the water cycle?

Answer 4

1. evaporates from ocean
2. condenses into clouds and rains
3. runoff into stream, infiltration into ground, vegetation interception
4. plants transpire
5. evaporation from ground

Question 5

What does ground infiltration do?

Answer 5

maintains water table

Question 6

What is a water table?

Answer 6

the surface above which there is air in pores between grains of soil and rock but below there is no air

Question 7

Why is the way water tables are formed convenient for wells?

Question 8

What are effluent streams?

Answer 8

• Groundwater flows into the stream
• still have water despite drought
• form discharge zones

Question 9

What are influent streams?

Answer 9

• get water from mountains
• bottom of stream is above the water table
• disappear during drought
• form recharge mounds

Question 10

What is an aquifer?

Answer 10

• deep in ground
• below water table
• rocks transport water faster

Question 11

What are aquicludes?

Answer 11

rocks that can’t transport water well

Question 12

What are wetlands?

Answer 12

any place where the water table is at the ground surface

Question 13

what is a water table?

Answer 13

saturated ground and rock

Question 14

What do wetlands do for us?

Answer 14

filters contaminants preventing them from entering waterways/rivers

Question 15

what is unique about wetland plants?

Answer 15

• rooted below the water table
• saturated
• light reaches them

Question 16

what is the riparian zone?

Answer 16

ecosystem next to a stream

Question 17

How are wetlands categorized?

Answer 17

water source

Question 18

salt marsh

Answer 18

ocean

Question 19

bog

Answer 19

rain

Question 20

fen

Answer 20

groundwater

Question 21

What is happening to wetlands? how are they regulated?

Answer 21

• they are being filled and drained
• can’t destroy one without building another of the same size
• its function isn’t restored

Question 22

Where is most of the Earth’s water?

Answer 22

97% in oceans

Question 23

Where is the Earth’s freshwater?

Answer 23

2% in ice and glaciers

Question 24

How much water is in the atmosphere?

Answer 24

0.001%

Question 25

What is absolute humidity?

Answer 25

• specific
• amount of water held in the atmosphere as vapor

Question 26

What can warm air do that cold air can’t?

Answer 26

hold more water

Question 27

What is relative humidity?

Answer 27

amount of water that’s dissolved in the air compared to its saturation concentration

Question 28

what is the saturation concentration?

Answer 28

how much water the atmosphere can hold

Question 29

How is rain made?

Answer 29

1. convective cells: raise warm, moist air and cool it by decompression
2. orographic effect: push air over a mountain (wet on one side and dry on the other)
3. push two air masses together to force air up (cold fronts)

Question 30

What is a stream?

Answer 30

any flowing body of water
EX. river, creek, brooks

Question 31

What is an effluent stream?

Answer 31

• ground water feeds stream
• maintained during dry season
• perennial
• flows all year
• seepage into channel from subsurface

Question 32

What is an influent stream?

Answer 32

• stream feeds groundwater
• flows in response to precipitation
• ephemeral
• above water table

Question 33

What can rivers do?

Answer 33

move sediment along the bottom (roll/slide) or through saltation (jumping)

Question 34

What is bedload?

Answer 34

stuff that moves along the bottom

Question 35

What is suspended load?

Answer 35

• fine particles caught up in the water
• doesn’t sit still (water is turbulent)
• vertical velocity component is much more than settling velocity

Question 36

what is dissolved load?

Answer 36

stuff in solution