Week 5 Notes- The Hydrosphere/Ch.4-Lec 5

Question 1

What are the three stages of the hydrologic cycle?

Answer 1

Storage- storing water in oceans, lakes, streams, groundwater, and glaciers
Evaporation- starts the cycle-water vapor goes into the atmosphere

Water condensation and Precipitation- when the water leaves the atmosphere, it falls back to the ground and is stored there or flows back to the ocean (ex.: rain, fog, etc.)

Question 2

What is the primary source of water evaporation on Earth?

Answer 2

Ocean surfaces with over 84%

Question 3

What is the definition of a drainage basin, or watershed?

Answer 3

Areas that separate water flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas. An area drained by a river or other body of water

Question 4

What are the three major “zones” of a river, and be able to describe them.

Answer 4

Zone 1: Headwaters- streams that flow down from steep mountain slopes and cut deep, V-shaped valleys.
Zone 2: Transfer Zone- elevation streams merge to flow down gentle slopes. Valleys broaden as coalescing rivers start to meander

Zone 3: Depositional zone- low elevation, rivers meander across flat valleys and floodplains. Separates to go out into the sea.

Question 5

What are the three different types of rivers?

Answer 5

meandering, straight, anastomosed

Question 6

What is the general process relating to the wearing down/removal of surrounding rocks & sediment that occurs in the upper reaches of rivers?

Answer 6

Erosion

Question 7

What is the reverse process related to sediments that happen in the floodplains of rivers?

Answer 7

Deposition

Question 8

Swamps and marshes are both characterized by what features. Where are they generally found, and how are they different from each other?

Answer 8

Alongside waterways and in floodplains

Question 9

Where are deltas found, and how are they formed?

Answer 9

The mouth of rivers
Sediment deposition

Question 10

What is the term whereby water is at the top of a stream, and any further rise will lead to flooding.

Answer 10

bank
bankfull

Question 11

What is the difference between an Open Lake and a Closed Lake?

Answer 11

An open lake has an outlet (a stream) while closed lakes have no natural outlet which turns them saline

Question 12

What are the five major ways that lakes can form?

Answer 12

1) glaciers
2) plate tectonics
3) volcano craters
4) river meanders
5) landslides

Question 13

What is the term used for water that is naturally stored underground?

Answer 13

groundwater

Question 14

What are two factors that affect groundwater flow and storage time?

Answer 14

porosity and permeability

Question 15

Where is an unconfined aquifer found, and what is a common name for it?

Answer 15

groundwater

Question 16

What separates a confined aquifer from an unconfined aquifer?

Answer 16

Confined aquifers are different from unconfined aquifers because they are denser due to the pressure above and have less permeable layers. The water here is older

Question 17

What is spring?

Answer 17

A natural exit point at which groundwater emerges out of an aquifer and flows onto the surface. May contain minerals from the earth, especially if emerging from a geyser or deep aquifer.

Question 18

What is the definition of the Cryosphere?

Answer 18

all frozen water on Earth

Question 19

What percent of all freshwater on Earth does the Cryosphere amount to?

Answer 19

69%

Question 20

What are the two basic categories of glaciers?

Answer 20

Continental glaciers/ice sheets
Alpine Glaciers

Question 21

Name the two major ice sheets on Earth.

Answer 21

Greenland Ice sheet, Antarctica Ice sheet

Question 22

What are the three major “zones” of Alpine glaciers. And what is the end of an Alpine glaciers called.

Answer 22

Accumulation zone, equilibrium line, ablation zone
the end is called Terminal Moraine

Question 23

What is Tidewater Glacier, and what is “glacial calving”?

Answer 23

A tidewater glacier terminates in the ocean. Common at the Ice Shelves and in Alaska.
“Glacier Calving” is when the ice breaks off the Glacier it ice bergs are deposited in the ocean.

Question 24

What are “ice shelves”?

Answer 24

These are sheets of ice that extend out over the ocean