ENV100Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 40: Pore Space In Soil, Drainage Basin, Ocean Current

• School: UTM
• Department: Environment
• Course: ENV100Y5
• Professor: Barbara Murck

Document Summary

Water is what makes us unique. Exists in all 3 states (solid, liquid, gas) Important in moving heat from equator to the poles. Water in the atmosphere helps to move the heat. Sculpts terrestrial landscape (shaped by water - carves out river valleys) Water is locked up in minerals in the earth"s mantle. Makes the mantle elastic; affects the dynamics of plate tectonics. May be largest water reservoir on the planet. Unknown how much cycles between internal & surface reservoirs through tectonics. Chapter 12 - freshwater systems and water resources. Study of water in the hydrosphere, both on and under the ground. Most of this is tied up in glaciers and ice caps. We can approach the hydrologic cycle from a systems perspective. Reservoirs: ocean; ice caps and glaciers; then groundwater. Processes: precipitation, surface runoff, infiltration, percolation (physical process where liquid runs into spaces between tiny solids), evaporation, transpiration.