BIOL 3450 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Cold Seep, Metabolic Waste, Zooplankton
14 Oct 2016
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1. 4x10^9 km^3 of water (71% of earth is water) gives the earth a distinct blue/white colour: of that 97% is oceans, 0. 01% is available for humans as freshwater (25% comes from canada) Comet hypothesis: same chemical reaction but formed in space and much earlier. Hypsographic curve: 71% of land is below sea level, 29% of land is above sea level the highest point above sea level is 8. 85 km at mt. If we smoothed the earth, we would be under water. Oceans & sea ice, polar ice & glaciers, underground water, freshwater lakes, saline lakes & inland seas, atmospheric vapour, rivers. The global hydrological cycle must maintain a balance between the addition and removal of water from each reservoir (one reservoir will increase while another will decline if balance is disturbed: ex. Heating of the planet causes the loss of polar and glacial ice.
