GEO 1111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Drainage Divide, Top Channel, Evapotranspiration

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Geology
• Course: GEO 1111
• Professor: Robert Jack Cornett

Document Summary

Hydrologic cycle the movement of water between ocean (hydrosphere), air (atmosphere, and land (lithosphere) Input = rain and snow: losses = evapotranspiration. Storage: changes in volume of soil water or lake or river water. Unit runoff concept: can be scaled with catchment size, like precipitation in mm/a (a = year) Input 800mm/a: evapotranspiration 350mm/a, run off 450mm/a. Steady state = no increase in reservoir size. Residence time = volume/ flux per time. Input = 2*10^6m^3a^-1: residence time = 0. 5a. Water in lake ontario: 6. 4 to 9 years. Groundwater in deep aquifer: 100s to 1000s of years. Rivers are major branches of a stream system. Streams are major geological agents of change in landscape ( transfer material from high to lows plane out relief) Streams provide pathways for inland colonization of continents. Most cities are built on floodplains of rivers. Drainage basins - total area drained by streams and its tributaries also called the catchment area.