| Term | Definition |
|---|
| erosion | The removal and transport of surface material such as rocks and soil. |
| water cycle | The continuous movement of water from water sources such as into lakes, oceans, the sky, and the ground. |
| drainage basin | The land drained by a river system, which is ther river and its tributaries. |
| tributary | A smaller stream or river that flows into a larger river. |
| divide | The area in which drainage basins are seperated from each other. |
| channel | The path a stream follows. |
| gradient | The measure of the change in the elevation over a certain distance. |
| discharge | The volume of water a river transports over a given amount of time. |
| load | The material that collects in a stream's water. |
| deposition | The process in which material drops, or settles. |
| alluvium | Rock and soil deposited by a river. |
| delta | A fan-shaped deposit formed when a load reaches a large bory of water such as a lake or an ocean. |
| alluvial fan | A fan-shaped deposit that forms on dry land. |
| flood plain | An area that gets flooded by the water in a river due to too much water for the river to hold. It mainly happens when there is a high snowmelt, which is normally during warm seasons. |
| ground water | Water that comes from the earth's surface. |
| water table | The invisible line seperating, or in between the zone of saturation and the zone of aeriation. |
| aquifer | A rock layer that stores and allows the flow of water. |
| porosity | The amount of open space between rock particles. |
| permeability | A rock's ability to have water pass through it. |
| artesian spring | A spring that forms where cracks occur naturally in the cap rock and the pressurized water in aquifers press to the surface through the crack. |
| karst topography | An area where ground water erosion is noticable at the surface. |
| point-source pollution | A single point from which pollution comes from. It is pretty easy to keep this kind of water pollution under control. |
| nonpoint-source pollution | This type of pollution is very hard to control, because it comes from multiple sources. |
| sewage treatment plants | Factories that clean the waste materials out of water that comes from the ser or drains. |
| septic tank | A large underground tank that collects and cleans waste water from a household. |
| condensation | This step of the water cylce occurs when water vapor cools into liquid water droplets that form clouds in the atmosphere. |
| precipitation | This step of the water cylce occurs when rain, sleet, or snow falls from clouds onto the earth's surface. |
| runoff | This step of the water cylce occurs when water collects in rivers, streams, and eventually lakes and oceans. |
| evaporation | This step of the water cylce occurs when liquid water from the earth's surface and from living organisms change into water vapor. |
| percolation | The downward movement through pores and and spaces in the soil due to gravity of water. |
| infiltration | This step of the water cylce occurs when the water is pulled into the ground due to the pull of gravity. |
| bed load | The load contains pebbles and boulders. |
| suspended load | The load contains small rocks and soil in suspension, which can make the river look muddy. |
| dissolved load | The load contains dissolved materials such as sodium and calcium. |
| youthful rivers | This type of river erodes its channel deeper rather than wider, it has a high gradient, so it travels fast, and its sides are steep and straight. |
| mature rivers | This type of river erodes its channel wider rather than deeper, it doesn't have as high a gradient as a youthful river, has more discharge, tributaries, and then also has lessfalls and rapids. |
| old rivers | This type of river has a low gradeint and extremely low erosive power. These rivers contain more meanders. |
| rejuvenated rivers | This type of river occurs where land is raised by earth's tectonic forces. |
| meander | A turn in a river or tributary. |
| terrace | A step-like feature created by a rejuvenated river. |
| zone of aeration | The upper zone which usually isn't completely filled with water, but with rocks and soil too. ( Is about Ground water) |
| zone of saturation | The lower zone where water accumilates between small rock particles. |
| porosity | Open spaces in a rock laer expresses... |
| recharge zone | The ground surface where water enters an aquifer. |
| springs | Where water flows from the ground, it forms these. |
| artesian formation | A sloping layer of permeable rock sandwiched by 2 other layers of permeable rock. |
| cap rock | In an artesian formation, the top layer is called this. |
| well | A man-made hole deeper than the water table, therfore it would fill up with water. |
| dripstone | A deposit of calcium carbonate, a type of limestone, is called this. |
| sinkhole | A sinking, circular depression. |
| dripstone column | Where a stalactite and a stalagmite meet each other, forming one object called this. |
| stalactite | Looks like an icicle, and is formed by water, and is found at the top of caves. |
| stalagmite | Looks like an icicle, and is formed by water, and is found at the bottom of caves. |
Combine with other sets
i c he didn't fix the typos and in fact, added some more...at least you can read them though, we're not entirely stupid....
