EAS100 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Vadose Zone, Water Content, Aquifer

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
• Course: EAS100
• Professor: Daniel Alessi

Document Summary

Often called the unsaturated zone: zone of saturation (also called the aquifer!) where all pores are completely filled, basics of groundwater flow, driving force driven by potential! This can take anywhere from a couple days to a million years: springs are natural points of discharge, physical features associated with groundwater systems, springs where the water table intersects the ground. Important property of snow and ice: the annual snowline indicates the boundary for areas that have year-round snow. Ice wedging permafrost has an active layer laying on top that melts in the summer. Cold, salty water is much denser, and therefore flows downwards into ocean basins, driving deep ocean circulation: geography and depth patterns of the global oceans, water covers 70% of the earth"s surface. Motion decreases downwards and dissipates to a point that the movement is negligible. In shallow water, wave orbitals flatten because of drag on the seafloor. Earth and moon both pull on each other.