Water Systems Flashcards
(27 cards)
What is another name for the water cycle?
Hydrological Cycle
What is transpiration?
the release of water vapor from the leaves of plants.
What is a reservoir?
A large natural/artificial lake used for water supply
What is an aquifer?
An Aquifer is an underground layer of porous rock/sand that contains water.
What is runoff?
Is water that moves across the surface of land into streams or rivers. Sources of runoff include heavy rain, snowmelt, or excess irrigation water. Runoff can carry pollutants from the soil into rivers and streams.
What is a watershed?
is any surface area from which runoff resulting from rainfall is collected and drained through a common point.
What percentage of Earth’s water is found in the oceans?
97.25%
How does the Sun cause water to move from the oceans to the atmosphere?
When water is heated by the sun, it evaporates into the atmosphere in the form of water vapor.
How do clouds form?
When air in the atmosphere cools, water vapors are condensed into tiny water droplets to form clouds.
What causes it to rain?
When water droplets in clouds grow large enough, they fall as rain.
What percentage of Earth’s water can be found in soil?
0.005%
What percentage of Earth’s water is stored in ice and snow?
1.9%
What percentage of Earth’s freshwater is stored in ice and snow?
68.7%
What percentage of Earth’s water is found in lakes?
0.009%
What is permeability?
the ability of a sediment or rock to transmit fluid.
What is porosity?
the percentage of pore space in a volume of rock or sediment.
How do you calculate porosity?
To calculate the porosity, divide the volume of pore space by the total volume of the sediment. To calculate percentage porosity, multiply the porosity by 100.
What is a water cycle?
the continuous movement of water from Earth’s surface to the atmosphere and back again.
What is Condensation?
change from a gas to a liquid. Condensation of water occurs when water vapor is cooled.
What is convection?
transfer of heat through movement of a fluid. The transfer of thermal energy from one part of a gas or liquid to another by a circulating current.
What is a convection current?
the circular motion of a fluid (such as air)
in which hot material rises while cold material sinks.
What is a Land Breeze?
a wind that blows from the land to the sea. During land breezes, the ocean will be warmer than the land.
What is a Sea Breeze?
a wind that blows from the sea to the land. During Sea Breezes, the land will be warmer than the ocean.
What is the difference between weather and climate?
Weather is the set of environmental conditions that changes everyday. Climate is the set of environmental conditions averaged for 30 years or more.
