GPHY 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Taos, New Mexico, Water Cycle, Baseflow

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Geography
• Course: GPHY 102
• Professor: Ryan K Danby

Document Summary

Flow of rivers: depending on the climate, rivers will flow according to availability of water snow melt rainfall. In some settings, all of these water sources may contribute. In large catchments, sources may reflect a variety of sources that are not apparent downstream. Rainfall: depends on amount and intensity of rainfall. If rainfall is low intensity, infiltration into soil will reduce flow. If rainfall is high intensity, or sustained for a long period, this may exceed soil moisture storage capacity and result in runoff: generally causes an abrupt increase in discharge, followed by a gradual recession as the watershed drains. Intense rainfall in the desert: taos, new mexico, august. Baseflow: when there is no further increase in water input, flows decrease, reaching low discharges, represents slow drainage from soils on slopes, groundwater inputs reaching the surface, release from lakes and wetlands. Glaciers: multi-year storage of snow as ice, released as discharged when melt energy is present.