Unit 3 Vocabulary
The Hydrosphere
1. Water Cycle - the unending circulation of
Earth’s water supply.
2. Infiltration - the movement of surface
water into rock or soil through cracks and
pore spaces
3. Transpiration - plants absorb water and
release it into the atmosphere.
4. Gradient - the slope or steepness of a
stream channel
5. Stream Channel - the course the water in a
stream follows.
6. Discharge - the volume of water flowing past
a certain point in a given unit of time.
7. Tributary - a stream that empties into
another stream.
8. Base Level - the lowest point to which a
stream can erode its channel.
9. Meanders - a stream with many bends
10. Bed Load - the part of a stream’s load of
solid material that is made up of sediment too
large to be carried in suspension.
11. Capacity - the maximum load a stream can
carry.
12. Alluvium - the sorted material deposited by
a stream.
13. Delta - an accumulation of sediment formed
where a stream enters a lake or ocean.
14. Natural Levee - a landform that parallels
some streams.
15. Floodplain - the side-to-side cutting of a
stream eventually producing a flat valley floor.
16. Flood - Occurs when the discharge of a
stream becomes so great that it exceeds the
capacity of its channel and overflows its banks.
17. Drainage Basin - the land area that
contributes water to a stream.
18. Divide - an imaginary line that separates
the drainage basin of one stream from another.
19. Zone of Saturation - the area where water
fills all the open spaces in sediment and rock.
20. Groundwater - the water within this zone
21. Water Table - the upper limit of the zone of
saturation
22. Porosity - the percentage of the total
amount of rock or soil that consists of pore
space.
23. Permeability - a material’s ability to release
a fluid.
24. Aquifer - permeable rock layers or
sediments that transmit groundwater freely.
25. Spring - a flow of groundwater that
emerges naturally at the ground surface.
26. Geyser - an intermittent hot spring or
fountain in which a column of water shoots up
with great force at various intervals.
27. Well - a hole bored into the zone of
saturation
28. Artesian Well - any formation in which
groundwater rises on its own under pressure.
29. Cavern - a naturally formed underground
chamber.
30. Travertine - the calcium carbonate that is
left behind producing the limestone that creates
this.
31. Karst Topography - landscape that has
been shaped largely by the dissolving power of
groundwater.
32. Sinkhole - a depression produced in a
region where groundwater has removed soluble
rock.