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What is the water cycle?

A continuous circulation of water

What are the stages of the water cycle?

Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and runoff

Drainage Basin

Area of land that captures precipitation and contributes runoff to a stream system

Perenial Streams

Flow all year in places with sufficient rainfall

When do floods occur?

Floods occur when water levels in rivers or streams overflow their banks

Where are floodplains found?

At deltas

What are deltas?

The place where rivers switch channels by forming a triangular shape and depositing sediments

Where are floodplains most common?

In braided streams with multiple channels, low gradients and coarse sediment

Where are wider floodplains found?

Meandering/curvy streams

What are fluvial landforms?

Landforms created by the action of rivers and streams, including valleys, floodplains, and deltas

Where do fluvial landforms occur?

Wider floodplains

How do humans attempt to limit flooding?

By creating artificial levees

What are stream terraces?

Remnants of old floodplains located above existing ones

Where is flash flooding most common?

Dry climates

Point Source Pollution

Pollution attributed to a single event

Non-Point Source Pollution

Pollution from multiple sources

What is the intensity of floods based on?

Nature of precipitation events

100 year recurrance

Floods happening once every 100 years, has a 1% chance of happening in a given year

Recurrance Interval

Rank floods/years

n = number of years

Probability: rank/n+1

Recurrance Interval: n+1/rank

How much of Earth’s surface is water?

70%

How much of the 70% is salt water?

71%

Base Level

Lowest point to which a stream can erode

What defines ocean water?

Salinity

What affects salinity?

Changes in water content of the solution

Amount of ice

Latitude and seasons

Wave Crest

Highest point of wave

Wave Trough

Lowest point of wave

Tide

Rising and lowering of sea levels throughout the day

Flood Tides

Occur after a low tide when water moves toward the shore as sea levels rise

Spring Tide

Occurs when the sun, moon and Earth line up w/ each other at a full or new moon

Neap Tide

Occurs approximately 2 weeks after Spring Tide

Composition

Varies with latitude

What is density influenced by?

Salinity and temperature

What happens if there is a higher salinity and lower temperature?

Higher density

What does density cause?

Ocean layering

How fast does sound travel through water?

1500m/sec

1500×5.2/2=3900

What is satellite altimetry?

How variations of the sea are measured

What derives energy and motion from wind?

Ocean Waves

What determines wave length?

Distance between crests; troughs

Amplitude

Height of wave, vertical between crest and trough

Wave Period

How fast the waves are moving

What do attributes depend on?

Wind speed/distance/time it blows

Wave Orbital

Diameter of the wave

Surf Zone

Where the waves are breaking

What happens at the surf zone?

Height increases and length decreases

Two

Amount of high tides and low tides per day

Tidal Range

Amount of space from high tide to low tide

Tidal Deltas

Tides behaving like currents

Tombolo

Strip of sand connecting a small island to the mainland and can be obscured during high tide.