Addison-Wesley  Earth Science – Terms and Definitions

                     Authors: Robert E. Fariel, Robert W. Hinds, David B.Berey

   

   Section 1             Water On the Ground

   

   condense                        To change from a gas to a liquid.

   divide                             The highest land that separates the direction in which
   water will run off the earth's surface.

   evaporate                       To change from a liquid to a gas.

   freeze                             To change from a liquid to a solid.

   glacier                            A moving mass of ice and snow.

   lake                                A body of water that collects in a hole or depression in
   the earth's surface; larger and deeper than a pond.

   pond                              A body of water that is smaller and shallower than a lake.

   runoff                             Water that follows off the earth's surface.

   sheet runoff                    Water that has no channels to direct its flow as it runs off
   the earth's surface.

   stream                            Runoff that follows in a channel between banks of soil,
   rock, or other material.

   swamp                           A low-lying water-soaked marsh or bog that forms when a lake
   or pond fills with sediment and vegetation.

   transpiration                   The process by which green plants, as they make food, dive off
   water vapor through small openings in their leaves.

   tributaries                       Streams and small rivers that empty into one large river
   system.

   water cycle                     The process by which water is continually recycling between
   the earth's surface and the atmosphere; also called the hydrologic cycle.

   Watershed/river basin     All the land that drains into a river, with its system of streams
   and other tributaries.

   

   Section  2                  Water In the Ground

   

   adhesion                         The attraction of water molecules to other kinds of
   molecules.

   aquifer                            A layer of permeable rock through which water travels.

   artesian spring                A natural flow of water from an artesian system.

   artesian system               A combination of rock layers in which water passes downward
   through an aquifer.

   capillary action               The upward movement of water in soil due to adhesion and
   cohesion.

   capillary fringe                An area just above the water table that receives its moisture
   by capillary action.

   cohesion                         The attraction of one molecule to another molecule of the
   same kind.

   geyser                            The eruption from the ground of water and steam that has
   been heated by hot magma or rocks in the earth's crust.

   ground water                  Water that has infiltrated the earth.

   impermeable                   Allowing no water to pass through.

   infiltration                       The process by which water sinks into the ground.

   permeability                    How easily water flows through a material.

   pore spaces                    Spaces between particles of sand or soil.

   porosity                          The total volume of the pore spaces in a certain volume of
   material.

   spring                             The lace where ground water flows out of the ground because
   the water table has intersected the earth's surface.

   water table                     The boundary between the zone of aeration and the zone of
   saturation.

   zone of aeration              The layer of soil between the water table and the earth's
   surface.

   zone of saturation           The layer of soil below the water table.