97.2% salt water

2.8% fresh water

2.2% Icecaps and glaciers

0.6% Groundwater

0.01% Rivers, lakes, & streams

0.0001% Atmosphere

Hydrosphere – water-sphere, water covering the Earth.

evaporation – changing from liquid to gas.

transpiration – fluids leaving plant leaves as gas

evapotranspiration – combining both evaporation and transpiration

sublimation – changing from a solid to a gas.

condensation – changing from gas to liquid

water budget – amount of water used and collected

usage – more used then supplied, supplies are reachable

recharge – more H₂0 input then used, supplies are built up

surplus – more H₂0 input then used, supplies are full, saturated run off

glacier – huge mass of moving ice and snow compacted by the pressure of snow piled one layer on top of another

valley glaciers – long narrow glaciers that flow down mountain valleys like a solid river

continental glaciers – large thick (miles) ice sheets covering large land masses, found at the polar regions

icebergs – large chunks of ice floating, mostly submerged, in the polar ocean areas. Most come from the continental glaciers of Greenland and Antarctica.

surface runoff – precipitation that does not evaporate or soak into the ground.

Factors:

- types of ground material

- water already in ground

- amount of precipitation

- pore space of ground material

- amount of plant life

- area of surface

watershed – land area from which water drains into a river or stream

lake – large deep collection of standing fresh water

pond – smaller collection of standing fresh water

reservoir – artificial human made lake or pond

porosity - % of the material that is pore space

factors – shape and sorting

permeability – rate fluids can pass through the pore space of the materials

factor – pore size

impermeable – fluids can not pass through

capillary action – liquids climb up through small pores or cracks of material as a result of the liquid adhering to the material. Evapotranspiration is the only way to get the liquid out of this material

water table – level of ground material water saturation, top of zone of saturation

zone of aeration – area above the water table where air can enter the ground material

ordinary well – hole dug in the ground to reach the water table

hillside spring – place where the surface of a hilly region meets the water table

aquifer – permeable ground material that holds and carries water

artesian formation – place were the aquifer is "sandwiched" between two layers of impermeable rock layers

cap rock – impermeable rock layer above an artesian formation

artesian wells – wells dug to the aquifer below a cap rock. These wells can be under pressure if the well is dug is at the lower elevations of the artesian formation

artesian spring – location where the aquifer meets the surface. These can be under pressure if the spring is at the lower elevations of the artesian formation

fissure spring – an artesian spring that is formed when there is a break "fissure" in the cap rock

The ground water temperature is usually at a constant temperature at a depth of up to 20 meters. The temperature is the average temperature of the location above.

permafrost – permanently frozen ground water since the average annual temperature above is above freezing

water molecule – molecule composed of two hydrogen and one oxygen atoms

Water molecules have a positively and negatively electrically charged end, this is called polarity. This polarity lets water molecules easily attach themselves to many other atoms or molecules and dissolve that material.

solvent – the substance in which other materials are dissolved

solution – an atom by atom or molecule by molecule mixture of two or more different materials

hard water – water containing large amounts of dissolved minerals like calcite, iron, magnesium. Hard water does not "wet" things well.

soft water – water not containing dissolved minerals. Soft water "wets" things better.

hot springs – water that comes from a wide fissure spring that is heated by the Earth’s internal heat.

geysers – are boiling super hot springs that periodically erupt as gushers of hot water and steam. These are thought to be caused when super hot springs are constricted some where in the fissure and the temperature reaches a flash point temperature.

caverns – underground passageways found mostly in limestone where water has dissolved the rock material while traveling through cracks.

stalactites – icicle like mineral deposits hanging from the ceilings of caves