GEOSC 010 Chapter Notes - Chapter 16: Bank Erosion, River Engineering, Distributary
Document Summary
16. 1 earth as a system: the hydrologic cycle. Learning objectives: paths of the hydrologic cycle, hydrospheres major reservoirs. The hydrologic cycle explains how water evaporates in oceans, moves and eventually falls as precipitation. The water then moves towards the ocean and cycle begins again. The water is soaked into the ground through a process called infiltration. The water that is moving over the surface is runoff. Water absorbed through plants and later released into the atmosphere is called transpiration. The combination of infiltration and transpiration is called evapotranspiration. The process repeats over and over and the overall water supply stays the same. The earth only has 2. 5% of freshwater that is purified through this process. Glaciers and lakes store some of this water typically called reservoirs. Learning objectives: describe drainage basins and river systems. A stream regardless of size flows into a channel.
