Fresh Water Vocabulary

HELLO DUKE, GREAT YEAR SO FAR!

Water Cycle The continuous movement of water from the ocean to the atmosphere to the land and back to the ocean

Erosion The process by which wind, water, ice, or gravity transports soil and sediment from one location to another

Tributary A stream that flows into a lake or into a larger stream

Watershed The area of land that is drained by a water system

Divide The boundary between drainage areas that have streams that flow in opposite directions

Channel The path that a stream follows

Load The materials carried by a stream

Deposition The process in which material is laid down

Placer Deposit Occurs when heavy minerals are deposited at places in a river where the current slows down

Delta A fan-shaped mass of material deposited at the mouth of a stream

Alluvial Fan A fan-shaped mass of material deposited by a stream when the slope of the land decreases sharply; form on dry land

Floodplain An area along a river that forms from sediments deposited when the river overflows its banks

Headwater The source or beginning of a river.

Aquifer A body of rock or sediment that stores groundwater and allows the flow of groundwater

Water Table The upper surface of underground water; the upper boundary of the zone of saturation

Porosity The percentage of the total volume of a rock or sediment that consists of open spaces

Permeability The ability of a rock or sediment to let fluids pass through its open spaces, or pores

Recharge Zone An area in which water travels downward to become part of an aquifer

Artesian Spring A spring whose water flows from a crack in the cap rock over the aquifer

Well A human-made hole that is deeper than the water table

Sinkhole A circular depression in the Earth caused by the collapse of underground caves when the water table drops below the level of the cave

Turbidity A measure of the concentration of particles suspended in water

Point-source Pollution Pollution that comes from a specific site

Nonpoint-source Pollution Pollution that comes from many sources rather than from a single, specific site

Sewage Treatment Plant A facility that cleans the waste materials found in water that comes from sewers or drains