Professional Documents
Culture Documents
- Stream discharge: Q = A x V
- As the amount of water in a stream increases, the
stream must adjust its velocity and cross sectional
area in order to form a balance
- Discharge increases as more water is added to the
system
- As discharge increases, depth and velocity increase
- The rock particles and dissolved ions carried are the
load
- Suspended load are particles carried in the main part
of the stream
- Bed load is with coarse an ddense particles on the
bed of the stream but move by saltation (jumping) as a
result of collisions
- Dissolved load is when ions have been introduced by
weathered rocks
- Floods occur when the discharge is too high, the
stream widens, and the flooded areas are known as
floodplains
Groundwater:
- The surface below which all rocks are saturated with
groundwater is the water table
- Rain falls on the surface and seeps into the soil into a
zone called the zone of aeration (unsaturated zone)
where pores are filled with air
- They are eventually filled up to form saturated zones
- Porosity is the percent of volume of the rock that is
open pore space
- Well rounded, coarse sediments have high porosity
while fine sediments dont (basically how much water
can fit between the rocks)
- Poorly sorted sediments have low porosity because
fine granules fill spaces
- Porosity is low in igneous and metamorphic rocks
because the minerals are intergrown unless theyre
fractured
Radial Drainage
Profile
Upon that thought, many of you are probably thinking
the mouth of a river, or sea level. You would be
absolutely correct. In the case for large rivers, a delta
or Mouth of the river at sea level Is indeed a "Base
Level", in fact, sea level itself is considered the
"Ultimate Base Level". How then can a waterfall be a
base level? Well, some wonderfully drawn pictures
(/sarcasm) should give some light on it.
Formation of Lakes:
- Glaciers form lake basins by making holes in
loose/soft soil, depositing minerals across stream beds,
or leaving buried chunks of ice behind that melt
- Glaciers retreat and sediments accumulate from
tributaries (organic material from watershed and
aquatic plant/algae)
- Used for dating (Pb-210 and C-14). Also can use
sharp increases in pollen in plants. Diatom
abundance/composition is also used.
Ground Water:
Ground Water is water that is in the ground. It exists in
the pore spaces and fractures in rock and sediment. It
originally was rainwater or snow. Water will move down
into the earth until it reaches a layer of soil where it
can not penetrate. This layer is called the
impenetrable layer. The uppermost reaches of this
water is called the water table.
Facts- Groundwater makes up about 1% of the water
on Earth. That's about 35 times the amount of water in
lakes and streams! It occurs everywhere beneath the
Earth's surface, but is usually restricted to depths less
that about 750 meters. The surface below which all
rocks are saturated with groundwater is the water
table
Light Variability:
- Light controls temperature (solar radiation) and
photosynthesis (for dissolved O2)
- Solar radiation determines wind pattern in lake basins
and water movement
- Algae suspended in water (phytoplankton), algae
attached to surface (periphyton), and vascular plants
(macrophytes)
- Organic C compounds absorb light and suspended
materials absorb and scatter
- Vertical extinction coefficient (k) is the percentage of
the surface light absorbed or scattered in a 1 meter
long vertical column of water
- Light penetrates deeper with low k-values (btw
attenuation means decrease)
- The euphotic zone is the max depth where algae and
macrophytes can grow (0.5%-1% of the amount of light
available at surface)
Density Stratification:
- After ice-out (Spring) the water column is cold and
isothermal
- Because of nature of water, lakes tend to stratify in
distinct layers
- When the temperature (density) of the surface water
equals bottom, it can be mixed easily. This is known as
turnover
- As it becomes warmer and more buoyant, the top
stops mixing with the bottom
- Three layers: Epilimnion, metalimnion, and
hypolimnion from top to bottom
- Fetch is the exposure of lake to win and effects
mixing (size does too)
- Spring turnover, summer stratification, fall turnover,
winter stratification
- Lakes with two mixing periods like above are dimictic
as opposed to polymictic
- Holomictic lakes are mixed from top to bottom. Partial
is meromictic
- The nonmixing bottom layer is called the
monimolimnion and the one that mixes completely is
the mixolimnion
- Monimolimnion has high [] of dissolved solids
The Watershed: Drainage basin (all land and water
areas that drain towards a lake)
- Water quality decreases with an increasing ratio of
watershed area to lake area
- Lakes with small watershed that are made from
groundwater flow are seepage lakes
- Lakes fed primarily by inflowing stream are drainage
lakes
- Seepage lakes are susceptible to acid rain because of
low buffering capacity
Lake Chemistry:
- Function of the climate and basin gelology