GEOL 101 Final: Chapter 17 Notes for FINAL.pdf
Document Summary
Key facts about groundwater: groundwater collects and moves in small openings, groundwater usually travels very slowly, groundwater represents the largest reservoir of fresh water that is readily available to humans, groundwater dissolves rock. List the sources of the most, and second most freshwater in the hydrosphere: ice sheets and glaciers, groundwater. What does groundwater do: it erodes: it moves soluble rock (limestone) and allows sinkholes to form and creates subterranean caverns, an equalizer of streamflow: stores water for rivers when there is no rainfall. What happens to the rain when there is rainfall: some of the water runs off, some water returns to the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration, the remainder of water soaks into the ground. What influences the amount of water that is present in each of the 3 stages above: steepness of slope, nature of surface material, intensity of rainfall, type and amount of vegetation.
