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Honors Earth Science Final: Chapter 5-Running Water and Groundwater

Terms in this set (68)

The maximum load of solid particles a stream can carry

The maximum particle size a stream can transport

The process by which like-sized particles are deposited together

The material deposited by a stream (occurs when material sinks or stops moving because the velocity is too low)

The lowest point to which a stream may erode its channel

When a stream has cut is channel closer to base level, its energy is directed from side to side and erosion produces a flat valley floor called a _____________, covered with alluvium

Streams that flow upon floodplains often flow in sweeping bends called __________

Widespread meandering may result in shorter channel segments called __________

Abandoned bends

Triggered by heavy rains and/or snowmelt. Sometimes human interference can worsen or even cause these.

THe largest reservoir of freshwater that is readily available to humans

Zone of Saturation

Groundwater is water that occupies the pore spaces in sediment and rock in a zone beneath the surface called ____________

The upper limit of the zone of saturation

Zone of Aeration

Above the water table, where the soil, sediment and rocks are not saturated

The quantity that can be stored depends on the _____________ (the volume of open pore spaces) of the material

The ability to transmit a fluid through interconnected pore spaces, controls the movement of groundwater

Materials with very small pore spaces (such as clay) that hinder or prevent groundwater movement

Material with larger pore spaces such as sand that are permeable and transmit groundwater freely

Occur whenever the water table intersects the land surface and a natural flow of groundwater results

Openings bored into the zone of saturation, withdraw groundwater and create roughly conical depressions in the water table

Cone of Depression

When there is a withdraw of groundwater, there is a conical depression in the water table formed called a __________________.

Occur when water rises above the level at which it was initially encountered

When groundwater circulates at great depths, it becomes heated, if it rises, the water may emerge like this

Occur when groundwater is heated in underground chambers, expands and some of the water quickly changes to steam

Form in limestone at or beneath the water table when acidic groundwater dissolves rock along lines of weakness, such as joints and bedding planes

Karst Topography

Exhibits an irregular terrain punctuated with many depressions

Karst topography has many many depressions called _______________

Conduit that guides the flow of water

Percent of water divided among lakes, streams, groundwater and the atmosphere

A cross-sectioned view of a stream from its source area (head) to the mouth. (Point downstream where the stream empties into another body of water)

The percent of water stored in oceans

Imaginary line separating the drainage basin of one stream from the drainage basin of another

The land area that contributes water to a river system

Ephemeral Streams

Streams that carry water only occasionally after a heavy rainstorm

Intermittent Streams

Streams that exhibit flow only during "wet" periods

The ongoing circulation of earths water supply

Yazoo Tributary

River that forms in a flood plane and flows parallel to the main river (connects later on)

Percent of water stored in ice sheets and glaciers

A portion of water from precipitation that soaks in the ground

Water moving in an erratic fashion that can be characterized as a swirling motion

The distance that water travels in a unit of time

Very slow moving streams that flow in roughly straight paths that are parallel to the stream channel

Evapotranspiration

When we can not distinguish between the amount of water that is evaporated and the amount that is transpired by plants

When water that infiltrated the ground surface is absorbed by plants, which ten release it into the atmosphere

The slope of a stream expressed as the vertical drop of a stream over a specified distance

Water flowing in a channel

When the rate of rain fall exceeds the earths ability to absorb it, the surplus water flows over the surface into lakes and streams

The volume of water flowing past a certain point in a given unit of time

Channel deposits composed of sand and gravel

River pattern in which tributary streams are nearly parallel to one another

Stream load consists of material in solution

Mound that is parallel to channels on both banks and is formed by repetitive floods

When a river takes on properties of a younger river (becomes young again)

River pattern of irregularly branching streams (most common river patterns)

When stream erosion occurs vertically

Local Base Levels

Lakes, resistant layers of rock, and main streams that act as a base level for their tributaries

River pattern when streams diverge from a central area like spokes from a hub of a tire

Deposit of sediment into a larger body of water

Deposit that forms where a high-gradient stream leaves a narrow valley and comes out suddenly onto a broad, flat plain, or valley floor.

River pattern in which many right angle bends can be seen. Develops where bedrock faults or criss cross of series of joints.

Ultimate Base Level

Incised Meanders

Meandering channels that flow in steep, narrow, valleys

Where a river erodes laterally into a bank

Area on a river where water flows backwards, flowing upstream

Marshes formed behind levees that are characteristically poorly drained

Stream where the pattern is crossing over

The remnants of a dried up oxbow lake

Entrenched Meander

Meander that has experienced down cutting

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