Water Resources and Management Quiz

Water Resources and Management

• Water covers 71% of Earth's surface
• Classified as saline or freshwater
• Saline water makes up 97.5%, mostly in oceans
• Freshwater comprises 2.5%
• 79% of freshwater is stored in ice caps and glaciers
• 20% exists as groundwater
• 1% is found in other freshwater sources (rivers, lakes, soil, water vapor)

Water Resources

• Domestic water is used for drinking, cooking, bathing, and washing
• Sourced from water companies, groundwater, and other supplies
• Agricultural water is essential for crop irrigation and livestock
• Sources include water companies, groundwater, and other supplies

Water Cycle

• The hydrologic cycle shows the never-ending movement of water within the Earth and atmosphere
• Water changes states (solid, liquid, gas) to move from one place to another
• Processes include evaporation, condensation, precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, hail), and snowmelt

Water Pollution

• Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies by humans
• Eutrophication pollution is caused by dumping waste
• Increasing nutrients and decreasing oxygen levels lead to algal blooms and dead zones
• Acid rain refers to precipitation with acid components (sulfuric or nitric acid)
• Acid rain leads to water and soil acidification

Soil

• Unconsolidated regolith, modified over time by water, air, and organic material
• Rock and minerals fragments in soil are known as regolith
• Soil contains 45% minerals, 25% air, 25% water, and 5% organic matter
• Soil is good condition for plant growth
• Edaphology is the study of soil in its role as a habitat for organisms
• Soil formation factors include parent material, time, climate, and organisms

Pedology

• Studies soil chemistry
• Formation
• Classification
• Characteristics

Soil Horizons

• Organic layer is composed of organic materials, rich in organisms
• A horizon contains minerals and humus, where plants live
• E horizon is where minerals and particles are washed out
• B horizon is where leached materials accumulate
• C horizon is the lowest layer with little soil formation

Soil Texture

• Proportions of particles (sand, silt, clay) affect water and air passage in soil
• Soil triangle is used to classify soil based on its particle composition (clay, silt, sand)

Soil in the Philippines

• Andisols are young soils from volcanic ash (fruiting plants)
• Histosols are found in wetlands (coconuts, mangroves)
• Oxisols are highly weathered Tropical soils (grass, cogon)
• Vertisols have high clay content (rice, vegetables)
• Ultisols are heavily weathered (pineapples, cassava, bananas)
• Mollisols are rich in humus (grasslands, coffee, banana, plants)

Soil Degradation

• Change in health that decrease ability to support organisms
• Physical factors include rainfall, runoff, floods, wind erosion, etc.
• Biological factors include poor farming practices and organic composition
• Chemical factors include alteration in soil pH
• Anthropogenic factors include deforestation, pesticides, etc.

Erosion

• Transportation of weathered rocks by natural agents (water, wind, glaciers)
• Causes include erodibility, texture, overgrazing, cutting, and contaminants
• Preventing erosion includes shaping steep terrains, reducing farmland conversion, planting vegetation, applying organic fertilizer, and constructing walls

Mass Wasting

• Downslope movement of rock, regolith, and soil due to gravity
• Types include: soil creep, solifluction, earthflow, mudflow, and debris slide (avalanche), and rockfall

Measures to Prevent Disasters

• Hazard maps for identifying landslide prone areas
• Engineering measures before hillslope development
• Soft mitigation measures (information, educational campaigns)
• Sediments include loose materials like weathered rocks, minerals, precipitation, and decayed organisms
• Sedimentation is the deposition of sediments by water, wind, ice, or gravity
• Factors affecting sediment include: sphericity, and roundness.
• Sorting degree of uniformity of grain sizes

Geological Processes and Earth's Surface

• Concepts explaining the formation of features, such as ridges and mountains, and movements.
• Processes including those in the mantle-crust, and subduction zones
• Plate tectonics, types of stress (tension, compression, shearing), properties of fault lines (normal, reverse, strike-slip, oblique)

Seafloor Spreading and Wilson Cycle

• Explanation of oceanic crust formation from volcanic activity at mid-ocean ridges
• Wilson Cycle explains the cyclical opening and closing ocean basins, and various stages
• Features like hotspots, hydrothermal vents, and seamounts (features of the ocean floor)

Divergent Boundaries

• Form when two plates move away from each other
• Causes mid-ocean ridges, rift valleys, and spreading ridges
• Examples include the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the East African Rift Valley

Convergent Boundaries

• Form when two plates move towards each other
• Causes subduction zones, trenches, volcanic arcs, and mountain ranges
• Examples include the Mariana Trench and the Himalayas

Transform Boundaries

• Form when two plates slide past each other
• Causes faults, fractures, and earthquakes along transform boundaries (fault lines such as the San Andreas fault)

Relative and Absolute Dating

• Relative dating (laws of stratigraphy) estimates age based on relationships
• Absolute dating numerically defines age using methods like radioactive decay
• Principles include: Lateral Continuity, Law of Superposition, and Cross-Cutting relationships

###Magmatism

• Processes, types of magma, and formations
• Volcanic rocks formed from the solidification of lava flows
• Plutonism theory describes the formation of Plutonic rocks

###Weathering

• Process where rocks are chemically changed or physically broken down
• Types include physical (abrasion, thermal action) and chemical (dissolution, hydrolysis, oxidation, and carbonation).
• Factors in weathering include climate, rock composition, and surface area.