CK12 Earth Science

easily use. Most liquid freshwater is found under the Earth’s surface as groundwater, while the rest is found in lakes, rivers, ...

All this means that we frequently see water in its three phases on Earth (SeeFigures13.3, 13.4, and13.5). Figure 13.3: Solid ice ...

molecule found in your glass of water today has probably been on the Earth for billions of years. It may have been in a glacier ...

of it goes directly back into the air to form water vapor and clouds again. However, most of this solid water sits atop mountain ...

Water exists on Earth in all three phases: solid, liquid and gas. The water cycle moves water from the hydrosphere to the atmos ...

transpiration The release of water vapor into the air through the leaves of plants; some- times called evapotranspiration. water ...

bayous, and rivers — all of these types of streams vary in their size, depth, speed, and location. Streams are always-changing n ...

Figure 13.9: The divides of North America. ( 23 ) Rivers generally move a lot of water. The Amazon River, the world’s river with ...

Table 13.1: (continued) # Name Continent Rate of Flow m^3 /s Approximate Length (km) 6 Huang He Asia 2,600 4830 7 Congo Africa 4 ...

Figure 13.10: The famous Horseshoe Falls at Niagara Falls drops over 1,800 cubic meters of water per second, down a cliff nearly ...

Figure 13.12: The Great Lakes are the largest lakes in the world. They are found along the border of the United States of Americ ...

Figure 13.13: The three primary zones of a lake are the littoral, open-water, and deep-water zones. ( 12 ) Wetlands The word wet ...

Figure 13.14: A marsh is a treeless wetland. ( 5 ) Figure 13.15: A swamp is characterized by trees in still water. ( 10 ) ...

have extremely high biodiversity. Figure 13.16: Chesapeake Bay, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia, is the largest estuary in t ...

of different ways, and their effects can be minimized in several different ways. Perhaps unsurprisingly, floods tend to affect l ...

Effects of Floods The most recent catastrophic flooding in United States history occurred in New Orleans in 2005, in the afterma ...

Figure 13.19: Levees that held back flood water were broken in many key areas around the city of New Orleans. ( 2 ) ...

Floods are also responsible for moving large amounts of sediments about within streams. These sediments provide habitats for ani ...

divide A ridge that separates one water basin from another. Each water basin will be drained by streams into a different ocean. ...

stream A body of moving water, contained within a bank (sides) and bed (bottom). swamp A wetland in a low-lying area, where wate ...