Water Definitions For Science

habitat

A habitat is the natural environment in which an organism lives, providing the necessary resources such as food, water, and shelter.

groundwater

Water that collects underground in soil pores and fractures of rock, serving as a vital source for ecosystems and human usage.

water cycle

The water cycle is the continuous process of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and runoff that circulates water within the Earth's atmosphere and surface.

evaporation

A process where liquid water is converted into vapor, typically caused by heat from the sun, leading to its rise into the atmosphere.

transpiration

The process by which moisture is carried from plant leaves to the atmosphere, mainly through small openings called stomata, contributing to the water cycle.

precipitation

The process where water, in the form of rain, snow, sleet, or hail, falls from the atmosphere to the Earth's surface, replenishing water sources.

tributary

A river or stream that flows into a larger river or lake, contributing to its flow and system.

watershed

An area of land that drains rainwater and snowmelt into a common body of water, such as a river, lake, or ocean, playing a crucial role in the hydrological cycle.

divide

separate or be separated into parts.

reservoir

a large natural or artificial lake used as a source of water supply.

eutrophication

excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to runoff from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen.

salinity

the quality or degree of being saline.

sonar

a system for the detection of objects under water and for measuring the water's depth by emitting sound pulses and detecting or measuring their return after being reflected.

seamount

1. a submarine mountain.

trench

a long, narrow ditch.

the area of seabed around a large landmass where the sea is relatively shallow compared with the open ocean. The continental shelf is geologically part of the continental crust.

abyssal plain

a vast, flat, or gently sloping region of the deep ocean floor, typically found at depths between 3,000 and 6,000 meters (10,000–20,000 ft)

mid-ocean ridge

1. a long, seismically active submarine ridge system situated in the middle of an ocean basin and marking the site of the upwelling of magma associated with seafloor spreading. An example is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

current

a body of water or air moving in a definite direction, especially through a surrounding body of water or air in which there is less movement.

Coriolis effect

1. an effect whereby a mass moving in a rotating system experiences a force (the Coriolis force ) acting perpendicular to the direction of motion and to the axis of rotation. On the earth, the effect tends to deflect moving objects to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern and is important in the formation of cyclonic weather systems.

climate

he weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period.

El NIno

a natural climate pattern characterized by the warming of ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean

La NIna

a climate pattern marked by cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean.