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Hydrologic cycles include precipitation, infiltration, runoff, transpiration, groundwater flow, and stream flow. Sun and ocean currents are driving forces behind hydrologic cycle.
Hydrologic cycles include precipitation, infiltration, runoff, transpiration, groundwater flow, and stream flow. Sun and ocean currents are driving forces behind hydrologic cycle.
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Hydrologic cycles include precipitation, infiltration, runoff, transpiration, groundwater flow, and stream flow. Sun and ocean currents are driving forces behind hydrologic cycle.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Formati disponibili
Scarica in formato DOC, PDF, TXT o leggi online su Scribd
A- Six fundamental processes of the hydrologic cycles include precipitation,
infiltration, runoff, transpiration, groundwater flow, and stream flow. Precipitation is the primary mechanism for transporting water from the atmosphere to the surface of the earth. When the clouds meet cool air over land, precipitation, in the form of rain, sleet or snow, is triggered and water returns to the land (or sea). A proportion of atmospheric precipitation evaporates. When rain, snow or sleet finally comes into contact with the ground, it either infiltrates into the ground or is transferred in runoff. Most of the water that returns to land flows downhill as runoff (such runoff in which water travels from land to the ocean through streams, rivers, and other channels). Some of it penetrates and charges groundwater (infiltration) while the rest, as river flow, returns to the oceans where it evaporates. As the amount of groundwater increases or decreases, the water table rises or falls accordingly. When the entire area below the ground is saturated, flooding occurs because all subsequent precipitation is forced to remain on the surface. Different surfaces hold different amounts of water and absorb water at different rates. Infiltration is when water on the surface of the land seeps into the ground. Some of the underground water is trapped between rock or clay layers - creating groundwater. Water infiltrates the soil and flows downward until it encounters impermeable rock and then travels laterally. The locations where water moves laterally are called ‘aquifers’. Groundwater returns to the surface through these aquifers, which empty into lakes, rivers and the oceans. Transpiration is simply the evaporation of water from plant stomata openings, and about 90% of the water that enters the plants roots is used for transpiration. B- Two driving forces behind the hydrologic cycle are the sun and The differential heating of the earth’s surfaces by the sun warms the oceans around the tropics, and its absence cools the water around the poles. This causes all of the ocean currents of warm water; it causes evaporation which gives rise to precipitation and transpiration. The sun powers the processes that control our climate and the content of our atmosphere. Without it, we wouldn't have oxygen or liquid water on our planet, let alone weather or seasons. C- Three significant anthropogenic interventions in the hydrologic cycle are diversions of river water for flood irrigation, overloading water systems with slowly degradable and non-degradable wastes along with withdrawing water form underground supplies faster than it is replenished, and introducing clouds with iodide to make them condense faster. Diverting major rivers has had a major impact on local ground water tables, as flood irrigation has given way to sprinkler irrigation over recent decades, artificial replenishment from flood irrigation has waned, ground water levels have declined, many downstream ecosystems are disappearing, and when a smaller amount of water enters the oceans there is less evaporation and precipitation patterns often change. When we introduce waste into our waters, it blocks and contaminates many water routes, causing such problems as acid rain and downstream contamination into waters used by wildlife. Depositing iodide into clouds to stimulate rain in many arid areas has caused extreme weather pattern changes and puts water in places where it would not normally exist, which can create unordinary evaporation patterns because there are few clouds to seed. It also creates problems when the chemical effects of cloud seeding hit wildlife and human waters, which can lead to contamination and potential loss in agricultural productivity.