Earth Science Exam 3

Different shapes of water molecules

Polarity, cohesion, adhesion, and high specific heat.

Important result of the molecular process

Ice floats on water; Most materials become more dense when they freeze.

Unique property of water

Water is most dense at about 4 degrees above freezing, which means that liquid water sinks.

What happens to water after falling to Earth

It infiltrates, runs off, and evaporates;

Based on the water cycle

From the sky as precipitation; We may pump a lot of it from the ground, but in an ultimate sense, even groundwater is replenished from the sky.

What drives the water cycle?

The sun; it provides the energy necessary to evaporate water into atmosphere.

When does groundwater mining occur?

When the rate of discharge exceeds that of groundwater recharge; occurs when

groundwater is treated like an

ore body

Streams in the Great Basin

end in closed (endorheic) basins.

What does a groundwater budget do?

balances precipitation against evaporation and discharge.

What percentage of water is freshwater?

1.2%; Only a little over 1/100th of all water is fresh surface water.

What percentage is groundwater?

30.1%, About 1/3 of the liquid fresh water is

groundwater.

Which state is the driest?

Nevada

Based on Utah water rights law

Senior; The person with the oldest

water right generally gets the water allocated to them.

What is the "Law of the River"?

A complex of agreements among Colorado Basin states and between The United States and Mexico regarding allocation of Colorado River water.

Colorado River Compact

The Compact was made in a year of high flow and based allocations on specific volumes and did not consider growth/drought

The areas from which streams collect water

Drainage basins.

How does an oxbow lake form?

when a meander gets cut off from the rest of the river

When a stream enters a lake or ocean

The stream would lose energy and drop its sediments forming a delta.

Where the stream velocity increases

Erosion.

Which of these features signify groundwater

Streams, flowing wells, playas, and mid-basin wetlands.

An aquifer should

contains drinkable water, high porosity, and high permeability.

Porosity of a material

The spaces between the sand grains in a pile of sand