Water Systems and Distribution Practice Flashcards

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering water distribution, quality, purification methods, oceanography, glacial features, and freshwater systems based on the provided lecture notes.

Potable Water

Water that humans can drink safely; only a tiny amount of water on Earth meets this criteria.

Reservoir

An artificial lake used for drinking water, irrigation, or the generation of hydro-electricity.

North Saskatchewan River

The source of drinking water for Edmonton, originating from the meltwater of the Saskatchewan glacier in the Columbia icefield.

Icefield

A large area of interconnected glaciers.

Glacier

A large body of ice that is constantly moving under its own weight.

Ice Sheet

A gigantic mass of ice covering an area of at least $50,000\,km^2$, such as those in Antarctica and Greenland.

Aquifer

An area of permeable, underground rock containing water that can be collected using a well.

Salinity

The amount of salt dissolved in water; saltwater typically contains approximately $35\,g/L$ of salt.

Physical Water Scarcity

A situation where the need for water exceeds the available supply.

Economic Water Scarcity

A lack of infrastructure to manage or distribute water resources effectively.

Hard Water

Water that contains a high concentration of dissolved minerals, specifically calcium and magnesium.

Turbidity

A measure of how cloudy or clear a water sample looks.

Reverse Osmosis

A purification method where water is forced through a membrane with extremely small pores to remove microscopic impurities.

Distillation

The process of evaporating and then condensing water to remove virtually all impurities.

Sterilization

A step in water treatment using chemicals like chlorine or ozone to kill harmful bacteria and pathogens.

Biodigestion

The use of microbes to "digest" toxic substances in wastewater before it is released back into the environment.

Deep Currents

Ocean streams mainly caused by temperature differences, salinity differences, and the Earth’s rotation.

Gulf Stream

A warm water current originating in the Caribbean Sea that flows north, responsible for Britain's relatively mild climate.

Longshore Drift

The movement of sediment along a shore caused by winds hitting the shoreline at an angle.

Spring Tide

A high tide occurring when the sun and moon are in line with each other, causing their gravitational forces to align.

Abyssal Plains

Flat areas of the ocean floor found between the continental rise and mid-ocean ridges.

Subduction Zones

Locations where denser oceanic plates sink beneath less dense plates, creating deep-sea trenches like the Mariana Trench.

Seafloor Spreading

The process at divergent boundaries where plates move apart and magma rises to form new oceanic crust.

Glacier Terminus

The front end of a glacier where it melts or breaks apart.

Moraine

A large pile of rocks and sediment dropped or deposited at the front or sides of a glacier.

Esker

A winding ridge or stream composed of sand or gravel deposited by a glacial meltwater stream.

Till

Sediment created by glacial weathering and erosion, which forms landforms like drumlins and moraines.

Watershed

The area of land, including both water and land surfaces, that drains into a specific body of water.

Continental Divide

The drainage divide of a continent; in Canada, it is the Rocky Mountains which determine if water flows to the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean.

Bed Load

Larger pebbles and rocks that skip along a riverbed, pushed by the force of faster flowing water.

River Delta

A landform created by the deposition of sediment at the mouth of a river where it enters slower-moving water.

Chemical Weathering

The physical or chemical breakdown of rock into sediment caused by reactions, such as acidic rainwater dissolving limestone.