Fresh Water Vocabulary

Hi, I’m Mike Krzyzsyhjski !

Water Cycle The continuous movement of water from the ocean to the atmosphere to the land and back to the ocean

Watershed The area of land that is drained by a water system

Divide The boundary between drainage areas that have streams that flow in opposite directions

Tributary A stream that flows into a lake or into a larger stream

Erosion The process by which wind, water, ice, or gravity transports soil and sediment from one location to another

Channel The path that a stream follows

Headwater The source or beginning of a river. The end is called the MOUTH.

Load The materials carried by a stream

Deposition The process in which material is laid down

Placer Deposit Occurs when heavy minerals are deposited at places in a river where the current slows down

Delta A fan-shaped mass of material deposited at the mouth of a stream

Alluvial Fan A fan-shaped mass of material deposited by a stream when the slope of the land decreases sharply; form on dry land

Floodplain An area along a river that forms from sediments deposited when the river overflows its banks

Water Table The upper surface of underground water; the upper boundary of the zone of saturation

Aquifer A body of rock or sediment that stores groundwater and allows the flow of groundwater

Porosity The percentage of the total volume of a rock or sediment that consists of open spaces

Permeability The ability of a rock or sediment to let fluids pass through its open spaces, or pores

Recharge Zone An area in which water travels downward to become part of an aquifer

Artesian Spring A spring whose water flows from a crack in the cap rock over the aquifer

Well A human-made hole that is deeper than the water table

Sinkhole A circular depression in the Earth caused by the collapse of underground caves when the water table drops below the level of the cave

Turbidity A measure of the concentration of particles suspended in water

Point-source Pollution Pollution that comes from a specific site

Nonpoint-source Pollution Pollution that comes from many sources rather than from a single, specific site

Sewage Treatment Plant A facility that cleans the waste materials found in water that comes from sewers or drains