Properties of Water and Hydrology

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key properties of water, global spheres, thermal characteristics, and environmental impacts from lecture notes.

Lithosphere

The Earth's crust and upper mantle layers.

Hydrosphere

All water bodies and water vapour on Earth.

Cryosphere

The frozen portion of the hydrosphere, which includes glaciers, sea ice, snow, freshwater ice, and permafrost.

Biosphere

The global region occupied by living organisms.

Atmosphere

The gaseous envelope surrounding the Earth.

Water Molecule Structure

A molecule formed by covalent bonding of two Hydrogen ($H$) atoms and one Oxygen ($O$) atom in a V-shape at a bond angle of $104.5^\text{o}$.

Polarization

A property of a water molecule in which one side carries a net negative charge around oxygen and the other side carries a net positive charge around hydrogen due to electron electronegativity and bent geometry.

Hydrogen Bonding

The attractive force between the negative charge on the oxygen atom of one water molecule and the positive charge on a hydrogen atom of a different water molecule.

Density

The mass per unit volume of a substance.

Maximum Density Temperature of Water

The specific temperature at $4^\text{o}\text{C}$ where liquid water molecules are closest together right before forming a rigid crystalline ice structure.

Lake Stratification

The formation of distinct temperature layers in lakes resulting from water reaching its maximum density at $4^\text{o}\text{C}$, keeping $4^\text{o}\text{C}$ water at the bottom during both summer and winter.

Specific Heat Capacity

The amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance by one degree Celsius.

Homeostasis

The tendency of an organism or biological system to resist change and maintain a stable, relatively constant internal environment.

Sea Breeze

A daytime coastal wind blowing from the sea to the land created when land heats faster than water, causing warm air over land to rise and produce a local low-pressure area.

Land Breeze

A nighttime coastal wind blowing from the land to the sea created when water remains warmer than land, forming a low-pressure zone over the warmer ocean.

Latent Heat

Heat absorbed or released by a substance during a change of physical state that occurs without a change in temperature.

Latent Heat of Vaporization

The heat added or removed when water undergoes a phase transition between liquid and gas.

Latent Heat of Fusion

The heat added or removed when water undergoes a phase transition between solid and liquid.

Viscosity

The physical resistance of a fluid (liquid or gas) to a change in shape, representing the inverse of fluidity.

Cohesion

The attractive force between identical molecules, such as the attraction between two adjacent water molecules.

Adhesion

The attractive force between different types of molecules, such as water molecules adhering to carboxylic acids on a plant xylem wall.

Surface Tension

The tendency of a liquid surface to shrink into the minimum surface area possible, caused by unbalanced inward hydrogen bonding forces acting on surface molecules.