Question | Answer |
What is the Water Cycle? | The continual movement of water among earth's atmosphere, oceans, and land surface through evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. |
What is precipitation? | Any form of water that falls from clouds and reaches Earth's surface. |
What is groundwater? | The water that fills the cracks and spaces in underground soil and rock layers. |
What is a tributary? | A stream or smaller river that feeds into a main river. |
What is a watershed? | The land area that supplies water to a river system. |
What is a divide? | A ridge of land that separates two watersheds. |
What is a habitat? | The place where an organism lives and where it obtains all the things it needs to survive. |
What is a reservoir? | A lake that stores water for human use. |
What is a wetland? | A land area that is covered with a shallow layer of water during some or all of a year. |
What is permeable? | A characteristic of a material that is full of tiny, connected air spaces that water can seep through. |
What is impermeable? | A characteristic of materials through which water does not easily pass. |
What is a saturated zone? | A layer of permeable rock or soil in which the cracks and pores are totally filled with water. |
What is a water table? | The top of a saturated zone, or depth to the groundwater under earth's surface. |
What is an unsaturated zone? | A layer of rocks and soil above the water table in which the pores contain air as well as water. |
What is a spring? | A place where groundwater flows to the surface. |
What is an aquifer? | An underground layer of rock or sediment that holds water. |
What is an artesian well? | A well in which water rises due to pressure within an aquifer. |
What is a geyser? | A fountain of water and steam that builds up pressure underground and erupts at regular intervals. |
What is irrigation? | The process of supplying water to areas of land to make them suitable for growing crops. |
What is conservation? | The process of using less of a resource so it will not be used up. |
What is water pollution? | The addition to any substance that has a negative affect on water or the living things that depend on water. |
What is a pollutant? | A harmful substance in the air, water, or soil. |
What is a point source? | A specific source of pollution that can be identified. |
What is a nonpoint source? | A widely spread source of pollution that is difficult to link to a specific point of origin. |