Hydrosphere Document PDF

# What is Hydrosphere? The **hydrosphere** is the Earth's component that encompasses all bodies of water, including oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, groundwater, and water vapor in the atmosphere. It is vital for sustaining aquatic ecosystems and influencing the global climate. This dynamic system un...

# What is Hydrosphere? The **hydrosphere** is the Earth's component that encompasses all bodies of water, including oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, groundwater, and water vapor in the atmosphere. It is vital for sustaining aquatic ecosystems and influencing the global climate. This dynamic system undergoes constant changes through processes such as evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and the water cycle. The **hydrosphere** plays a crucial role in thermal regulation and the redistribution of heat on the planet, impacting climate patterns and biodiversity. # Composition of Earth - Earth Has 4 main systems that interact: - **Earth's systems** - **Atmosphere:** air/gases - **Hydrosphere:** water - **Biosphere:** life - **Geosphere:** land/rock # Our Earth is mostly water # HYDROSPHERE - It comes from the ancient Greek "hydro" which means water and "sphaira" which means sphere. - It refers to water on, under and over the surface of the Earth. # Forms of Water - A diagram with the word "FORMS OF WATER" in the middle, and arrows branching out to three categories each: - **Gas:** - water vapor - steam - **Liquid:** - rain - mist - cloud - dew - fog - stream - **Solid:** - frost - snow - ice # The water cycle - There is always the same amount of water on Earth. - Water appears in different states (liquid, gas or solid form). - Water continually move between the atmosphere, the oceans and the continents. - There is a diagram of a glass of water with a cloud above it, and arrows showing evaporation, condensation, freezing, melting, sublimation, and frost formation. # Water Cycle Diagram - A diagram showing the water cycle with 5 phases: 1. **The sun heats the ocean.** 2. **Ocean water evaporates and rises into the air.** 3. **The water vapor cools and condenses to become droplets, which form clouds.** 4. **If enough water condenses, the drops become heavy enough to fall to the ground as rain and snow.** 5. **Some rain collects in groundwells. The rest flows through rivers back into the ocean.** # This continual movement is called the water cycle: - **Evaporation:** water evaporates into the atmosphere, where it cools. - **Condensation:** As it gets cooler on the atmosphere, it condenses and forms clouds. - **Precipitation:** when clouds cannot absorb any more water there is precipitation in the form of rain, snow or hail. Some precipitation falls on the land flowing into lakes and rivers, other water filters into the ground becoming groundwater. - **Transportation:** water in rivers or groundwater is transported to the oceans and seas again and the water cycle begins again. # Types of Water - **Saltwater:** 97% of the Earth's water is saltwater located mainly in the oceans and seas. - **Freshwater:** 3% is fresh water located on continents and islands (river, lakes, groundwater, water vapour...). # Hydrosphere - A diagram showing the proportion of fresh vs. saline water on Earth: - Fresh water: 2.56% - Saline water: 97.44% - Oceans: 96.5% - Saline groundwater and lakes: 0.94% - Groundwater: 0.77% - Glaciers: 1.76% - There is a diagram showing a stream channel and a groundwater spring with the text: - Streams, lakes, soil moisture, atmosphere, etc, account for 0.03% (3/100 of 1%). - Although fresh groundwater represents less than 1% of the hydrosphere, it accounts for 30% of all fresh water and about 96% of all liquid fresh water. # Where to find water - **Oceans:** vast masses of saltwater that separate the continents. - **Seas:** oceanic waters that are close to continents and not as deep as oceans. - **Rivers:** continuously flowing currents of water that flow into seas, lakes and other rivers. - **Tributary:** a river that flows into another river. - **Groundwater:** rainwater that infiltrates rocks and soil into the Earth's surface. - **Aquifers:** stores of groundwater that accumulate underground on top of impermeable layers of rock. - **Wells:** holes that men do into the Earth's surface to bring underground water to the surface. # Tributary, Aquifers and Wells - A photo of a tributary - There is a diagram of an aquifer with an artesian well, flowing well, and piezometric surface. # Other Sources of Water - **Glaciers:** huge mass of ice, formed from compacted snow, slowly flowing over a land mass. - **Ice caps:** huge mass of ice and snow that permanently cover the poles of the Earth. - **Lakes:** large bodies of water that accumulate in inland basins. They receive water from rivers, precipitation and groundwater. # Lakes, Ice Caps and Glaciers - There is a photo of a Glacier, an ice cap, and a lake. # Rivers - There are 3 stages in the course of a river: - **Upper Course:** from the river's source down the mountains water flows rapidly eroding rocks. - **Middle course:** water flows less rapidly depositing sediments. - **Lower course:** the river reaches its mouth into a lake, another river or a sea. Water flows slowly depositing sediments. - **The flow** is the amount of water in a river. It depends on: - The amount of rainfall. - The type of soil - There is a diagram of a river with the text: - Three courses of a river - Highland - Mouth - Upper - Middle - Lower # River Diagram - There is a diagram showing the upper, middle, and lower course of a river with text describing the characteristics of each course: - **Middle Course:** The river flows through a broad valley floored with sediments and changes its course quite frequently. It cuts into the bank on the outsides of the curves where the current flows fast and deep. Along the inside of the curves sand and gravel deposits build up. When the river washes against a valley spur it cuts it back into a steep bank, or bluff." # Types of Habitats - **Upper Course:** The river begins its descent through a narrow V-shaped valley. Falling steeply over a short distance, it follows a zig-zag course and produces interlocking spurs. - **Lower Course:** The river meanders from side to side across a flat plain on which deep sediments lie, often the water level is higher than that of the plain. This is caused by the deposition of sediment forming high banks and levees, particularly at times of flood. - **Loops and oxbow lakes:** form where the changing course of a river cuts off a meander. - **Sand and mud deposited:** at the river mouth form sand banks and may produce a delta # Uneven water distribution - Water is essential for life. Humans can only drink fresh water that needs to be purified. - As most fresh water is trapped in ice and glaciers there is not much water for human consumption left. - So we need to recycle water to assure our livelihood. # Effects of Water Distribution - Although water is found in a considerable amount in temperate and tropical regions where there is a lot of precipitation there is an uneven distribution of water on the Earth. - **Floods:** the inundation of land that is normally dry through the overflowing of a body of water - **Droughts:** a long period of scanty or low rainfall that normally affects growing or living conditions.