GEOG-120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Water Cycle, Parent Material, Interaction
22 Dec 2020
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Document Summary
Hydrologic cycle summarizes how water ows through our environment. Ocean holds 97% of water; fresh water accounts for 3%; two-thirds of it is in glaciers, snow elds, and ice caps; less than 1% we can readily us. Water moves from bodies of water by evaporation the conversion of a liquid to gas; warm temperatures and strong winds speed rates of evaporation. Water also enters the atmosphere by transpiration the release of water vapour by plants through their leaves an effectively creates pure water by ltering our minerals carried in solutions. Water returns to the earth by precipitation; which may be taken up by plants and usedby animals, but most ows as runoff. Aquifers are porous bodies of rock and soil that hold groundwater; recharged by precipitation. By emitting into the atmosphere pollutants that dissolve in water droplets, we change the chemical nature of precipitation, in effect, sabotaging the natural distillation process that evaporation and transpiration provide.
