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Where is most of the earth's water?
The vast majority of water on the Earth's surface, over 96 percent, is saline water in the oceans. The freshwater resources, such as water falling from the skies and moving into streams, rivers, lakes, and groundwater, provide people with the water they need every day to live.
How much of the available water is fresh:
3.5%
Where is the largest amount of freshwater stored
68 percenticecaps and glaciers, and just over 30 percent is found in ground water. Only about 0.3 percent of our fresh water is found in the surface water of lakes, rivers, and swamps.
Where is water stored?
reservoirs atmosphere, on the surface of the Earth, or underground.
which uses take the most water
39.6% irrigation, 39.3% Thermoelectric power, 13.5 Domestic use, 5.3 % Industrial use
How is water transported?
osmosis
What is the saturated zone?
Underground region in which all the earth's pores are filled with water.
what is the unsaturated zone?
Zone above zone of saturation in which the earth's pores are mostly filled with air
What is run off and how does it differ from infiltration?
Infiltration occurs when surface water enters the soil. ... The sponge soaks up the water until it can hold no more. At this point, the soil becomes saturated, but the excess water has to go somewhere. When this happens, we get overflow in the form of runoff, which is when surface
What is the water table?
the level below which the ground is saturated with water.
What is porosity?
Volume of pore space in the ground
What is permeability?
the state or quality of a material or membrane that causes it to allow liquids or gases to pass through it.
Be able to explain why a sediment may be able to hold a large amount of water but may have poor permeability?
pores connect so fluids flows
different types of material and whether it would make a good aquifer.
Unconfined - open to infiltration
Confined - overlain by less permeable materials
Perched - underlain by low-permeability
Artesian - water rises in pipe
How is the movement of water beneath the ground different the surface
Water moves underground downward and sideways, in great quantities, due to gravity and pressure. Eventually it emerges back to the land surface, into rivers, and into the oceans to keep the water cycle going.
What factors would affect the rate of groundwater flow?
Groundwater flow rates are controlled by the permeability of the aquifer through which the water is flowing and by the local hydraulic gradient (the drop in hydraulic head per unit distance; equal to the slope of the water table for unconfined aquifers).
What is an unconfined aquifer?
An aquifer open to earth's surface. The bottom of the aquifer is the aquitard. Not under any pressure, usually shallow.
What is a confined aquifer?
An aquifer sandwiched between 2 aquitards. Usually deep and under pressure. Associated with artesian wells (a confined aquifer that squeezes the water out of it through a point where the pressure can be relaeased)
What does permeability and porosity have to do with an aquifer
Porosity is a measure of how much water can be stored in geological materials. Almost all rocks contain some porosity and therefore contain groundwater. ... Permeabilitydescribes how easily water can flow through the rock or unconsolidated sediment and how easy it will be to extract the water for our purposes.
Where are wells typically placed to obtain groundwater?
People can obtain groundwater by drilling a well below the water table. It is important to know the depth of aquifer before drilling to make sure that the water table is reached
What is an artesian well?
A well drilled into an aquifer under pressure, requiring no pumping to get water flow
How is groundwater replenished by surface water?
Groundwater replenishment happens through direct recharge and in-lieu recharge. Water used for direct recharge most often comes from flood flows, waterconservation, recycled water, desalination and watertransfers. ... Water also gets into the ground as farmers irrigate fields and orchards.
What are springs and where might we typically find them?
A spring is formed when the pressure in an aquifer causes some of the water to flow out at the surface. This usually happens at low elevations, along hillsides or at the bottom of slopes.
How do streams interact with the water table?
-River lower than water table can gain water from inflow of groundwater
-River higher than water table can lose water to groundwater
-Mound of groundwater can form below river due to outflow of river water into groundwater
What is a gaining stream and what is a losing stream
A stream that receives water emerging from a submerged spring, or other groundwater seepage, which adds to its overall flow. ... Losing stream: A stream that loses water as it flows downstream.
What do we call geologists who study groundwater?
Hydrogeology
How do geologists depict the water table?
The water table is an underground boundary between the soil surface and the area where groundwater saturates spaces between sediments and cracks in rock. ... Underneath the water table is the saturated zone, where water fills all spaces between sediments. The saturated zone is bounded at the bottom by impenetrable rock.
What are the effects of overpumping wells?
Over pumping a well exposes the geology in the cone of depression to the air.
What is a cone of depression?
the shape that the water table takes on near a pumping well
