2. Fresh Water Vocabulary

3. Hi, I’m Mike Krzyzsyhjski !

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

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

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

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

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

9. Channel The path that a stream follows

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

11. Load The materials carried by a stream

12. Deposition The process in which material is laid down

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

24. 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

25. Turbidity A measure of the concentration of particles suspended in water

26. Point-source Pollution Pollution that comes from a specific site

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

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