Water Flashcards
(34 cards)
What is the global hydrological cycle
a closed system driven by solar and gravitational potential energy
What are the three components of the hydrological cycle
Stores, Fluxes and processes
What is a store in the hydrological cycle
Store of water or places where the water is held e.g ocean
What are fluxes in the hydrological cycle
The measurement of the rate if flow between the stores
What are processes in the hydrological cycle
the physical factors which drive the fluxes of water between stores
What is a closed system
Occurs when there us transfer of energy but not matter between the system and the surroundings
Inputs come from within the system
What is an open system
receives inputs from transfers outputs energy and matter no other systems
Why is the hydrological cycle considered a closed system
As there is a fixed amount of water in the earths atmosphere system and has no external inputed and outputs so the total volume of water is constant
How does solar energy contribute to hydrological cycle
heated by sun, water on earths surface evaporates into the atmosphere
from the soil from plants via the leaves by transpiration
How does gravitational energy contribute to the hydrological cycle
water moves through the system by plant interception or over land as surface runoff
What is the global water budget
Annual balance of water fluxes and the size of water stores
Look at lesson 1 last bit ok power point
5 examples of fluxes in the hydrological cycle
Ocean precipitation, Ocean evaporation, land precipitation, evaporation and transpiration
Examples of stores
Ocean, Vegetation, lakes, rivers, land, soil moisture, groundwater
What are residence times
the average time a water molecule will spend in the reservoir or store
What is fossil water
Ancient groundwater such as that found in the Sahara desert
What is the cryosphere
Component of earth whereby water is frozen (all ice on earth)
e.g ice caps, ice sheets
Antartica contains…
70% of earths fresh water with 2100m-4000m thick ice caps
as it melts it increases stores
What amount of fresh water is available to us?
around 1.3% of fresh water is available
as 68.7% is trapped in ice caps and 30% in ground water
What is a drainage basin cycle
- a subsystem in the global hydrological cycle
- an open system
- can be any size from small stream to major river
How does the drainage basin work as a system
- input precipitation
- stored in trees or on surface
- into the ground through infiltration
- stored in soil or evaporated
- through flow into river channel
What condition does precipitation need to form
- air cooled to saturation point with relative humidity of 100%
- condensation nuclei e.d dust particles
- temperature below due point
What are the six impacts of precipitation on the basin
Rainfall amount, Type of precipitation, Seasonality, Intensity of precipitation, Variability of rainfall and Distribution
How does rainfall amount impact the basin
The amount that is discharged will vary
