Chapter 6: Running Water and Groundwater

Question 1

Water Cycle?

Answer 1

the constant movement of water among the oceans, the atmosphere, geosphere, and the biosphere

Question 2

Infiltration ?

Answer 2

the movement of surface water into rock or soil through cracks and pore spaces

Question 3

Gradient?

Answer 3

the slope of a stream over a certain distance

Question 4

Stream channel?

Answer 4

the course that the water in a stream follows

Question 5

Discharge?

Answer 5

the quantity of water in a stream that passes a given point in a period of time

Question 6

Tributary?

Answer 6

a stream that empties itself into another stream

Question 7

Meander?

Answer 7

a looplike bend in the course of a stream

Question 8

Bed load?

Answer 8

sediment that is carried by a stream along the bottom of its channel

Question 9

Capacity?

Answer 9

the total amount of sediment a stream is able to transport

Question 10

Delta?

Answer 10

an accumulation of sediment formed where a stream enters a lake or an ocean

Question 11

Natural Levee?

Answer 11

an elevated landform that parallels a stream and acts to confine its waters, except during floodstage

Question 12

Flood plain?

Answer 12

the flat, low-lying portion of a stream valley subject to periodic flooding

Question 13

Flood?

Answer 13

occurs when the discharge of a stream becomes so great that it exceeds the carrying capacity of its channel and overflows its banks

Question 14

Drainage basin?

Answer 14

the land area that contributes water to a stream

Question 15

Divide?

Answer 15

an imaginary line that separates the drainage of two streams; often found along a ridge

Question 16

Zone of saturation?

Answer 16

zone where all open spaces in sediment and rock are completely filled with water

Question 17

Groundwater?

Answer 17

water underground in the zone of saturation

Question 18

Water table?

Answer 18

the upper level of the saturated zone of groundwater

Question 19

Porosity?

Answer 19

the volume of open spaces in rock or soil

Question 20

Permeability?

Answer 20

a measure of a material’s ability to transmit fluids

Question 21

Aquifer?

Answer 21

rock or soil through which groundwater moves easily

Question 22

Spring?

Answer 22

a flow of groundwater that emerges naturally at the ground surface

Question 23

Geyser?

Answer 23

a hot spring or fountain that ejects water at various intervals

Question 24

Well?

Answer 24

an opening bored into the zone of saturation

Question 25

Artesian well?

Answer 25

a well in which the water naturally rises above the level of the water table

Question 26

Cavern?

Answer 26

a naturally formed underground chamber or series of chambers most commonly produced by solution activity in limestone

Question 27

Travertine?

Answer 27

a form of limestone that is deposited by hot springs or as a cave deposit

Question 28

Karst topography?

Answer 28

an area that has a land surface or topography with numerous depressions called sinkholes

Question 29

Sinkhole?

Answer 29

a depression produced in a region where soluble rock has been removed by groundwater

Question 30

What is the water cycle?

Answer 30

Water constantly moves among the oceans, the atmosphere, the solid Earth, and the biosphere. This unending circulation of Earth’s water supply is the water cycle

Question 31

What is balance in the water cycle?

Answer 31

Balance in the water cycle means the average annual precipitation over Earth equals the amount of water that evaporates.

Question 32

The ability of a stream to erode and transport materials largely depend on its?

Answer 32

Velocity

Question 33

What happens to discharge while gradient decreases between a stream's headwaters and mouth?

Answer 33

It increases

Question 34

What is a base level?

Answer 34

The lowest point to which a stream can erode it channel