The Water Cycle

Question 1

How much water is stored as liquid in oceans?

Answer 1

97%

Question 2

what is the most common way for water to be stored in the atmosphere?

Answer 2

As water vapour

Question 3

How much of earth do oceans cover?

Answer 3

72%

Question 4

What term is used to describe the length of time water is kept in a store?

Answer 4

Residence time

Question 5

What has the longest and shortest residence time?

Answer 5

Longest - Ocean

Shortest - Atmosphere

Question 6

What are the 4 stores of water and what do they mean?

Answer 6

Cryosphere - Water in solid form - ice

Oceanic water - water in oceans

Terrestrial water - Water on land surface or underground

Atmospheric water - water stored in the atmosphere

Question 7

What are the 4 main types of Terrestrial water?

Answer 7

Surface water - any body of water above ground

Ground water - water present beneath Earth’s surface

Soil water - water in soil

Biological water - all of the water stored in plant and animal matter on Earth

Question 8

How much of the available fresh water is held in 10 countries?

Answer 8

60%

Question 9

What is preciptation?

Answer 9

Input into the water cycle

water and ice that falls from clouds to the ground

Question 10

What is snowmelt?

Answer 10

Loss of ice due to melting, evaporation and sublimation

major component of the global movement of water

up to 75% of water in western USA comes from snowmelt

Question 11

What is evapotranspiration?

Answer 11

The combination of transpiration and evaporation

outputs of the water cycle

Question 12

What is Evaporation?

Answer 12

Process by which liquid water is converted into a gaseous state

Question 13

What is transpiration?

Answer 13

Evaporated moisture from pores on a leaf surface or plant stomata

Question 14

What is precipitation?

Answer 14

Moisture falling from clouds towards the ground

Question 15

What is Ablation?

Answer 15

Loss of ice and snow through melting + sublimation

Question 16

What is sublimation?

Answer 16

When water goes directly from the solid to the gas state

Question 17

What is groundwater flow?

Answer 17

Horizontal movement of water within aquifers

Question 18

What is condensation?

Answer 18

State change of water vapour to liquid water`

Question 19

What is intercepetion?

Answer 19

Rainwater stored in leaves and stems which is then evaporated

Question 20

What is Infiltration?

Answer 20

Vertical movement of rainwater through soil

Question 21

What is Throughflow?

Answer 21

water flowing horizontally through soil into rivers

Question 22

What is the Water balance equation?

Answer 22

Precipitation = Evapotranspiration + streamflow +/- storage

Question 23

What is the troposphere?

Answer 23

the lowest portion of Earth’s atmosphere

where all weather takes place

Question 24

What is the Dew Point?

Answer 24

the critical temperature when air becomes saturated and can hold no more vapour

Question 25

What happens at the Dew Point?

Answer 25

condensation as excess vapour changes state to form water droplets Precipitation then develops either through a complex process of these water droplets combining or ice crystals growing within clouds

Question 26

What is a drainage basin?

Answer 26

the area of land that is drained by a river and its tributaries The edge of a river basin is marked by a boundary called the watershed

Question 27

What is latent heat?

Answer 27

the heat required to convert a solid into a liquid or vapour, or a liquid into a vapour, without change of temperature

Question 28

What is through fall?

Answer 28

the part of rainfall or other precipitation which falls to the forest floor from the canopy

Question 29

What is stem flow?

Answer 29

Intercepted rain flowing down the trunk or stem of the plant