The Role of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes
Chapter Problems
The Water Cycle
Class Work
1. Is water ever destroyed?
2. True or False: The water we drink was around during the time of the dinosaurs.
3. What powers the water cycle?
Homework
4. True or False: The water cycle always follows the same pattern.
5. Although we cannot see evaporation how can we tell it happening?
6. Water storage is an important part of the water cycle and our daily lives, where do you
observe water storage?
7. What might happen if the water cycle stopped?
8. We know the sun powers the water cycle but what powers the water cycle on cloudy
days?
States of Matter in the Water Cycle
Class Work
9. What is the opposite of evaporation?
10. Describe how water can go through all the states of matter within the water cycle.
11. What processes of the water cycle see a gas turning into a liquid?
Homework
12. You have learned about the textbook example of the water cycle, what are some sub
cycles that exist?
13. Is it possible for water to become ‘stuck’ in a step of the water cycle?
14. What processes of the water cycle see a liquid turning into a gas?
Forces of the Water Cycle
Class Work
15. What are the driving forces behind the water cycle?
16. What causes the oceans in polar regions to be cooler than oceans near the equator?
17. The Coriolis Effect causes air currents to veer of course, what other impacts might the
Coriolis Effect have?
Homework
18. How does gravity impact the water cycle?
19. Where is heat transferred during the water cycle?
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6th Grade PSI
The Roles of Water
20. Why is the impact of solar energy different across the globe?
21. In what regions of the Earth would you find the warmest water? In what region would
you find the coolest water?
Global Pattern of Interconnected Ocean Currents
Class Work
22. What is a current?
23. Which stores more energy, landmasses or oceans? Why?
24. How long does it take for a current to flow throughout the entire network of currents?
25. What is the Global Conveyor Belt?
26. Explain what causes the oceans currents to rotate different in the northern and southern
hemispheres.
Homework
27. Define the term gyre
28. What impact does wind have on the ocean currents?
29. What powers the Global Conveyor Belt?
30. How do water temperature and the position of landmasses influence ocean currents?
Erosion and Weathering
Class Work
31. What are the results of weathering and erosion?
32. What is the difference between weathering and erosion?
33. What is the common element/force between weathering and erosion?
34. Are weathering and erosion interdependent or independent forces?
35. Define the term sediment
Homework
36. Define the term deposition.
37. What force is in play when water freezes in the crack of a rock?
38. How are sink holes and caverns examples of weathering and erosion?
39. What role do glaciers play in weathering and erosion?
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The Roles of Water
Answer Key
1) Water in never destroyed because the Earth is considered a closed atmosphere. Water is
continuously recycled through the water cycle.
2) True, the water on Earth is millions of years old.
3) The sun powers the water cycle.
4) False, the water cycle is composed of many sub cycles and can change constantly.
5) Evaporation can be seen through steam on a mirror after a shower, condensation of dew on a
lawn or holding a cup over a boiling pot of water. Evaporation itself is difficult to see but
through the effects of condensation we can prove it is happening.
6) Water tanks, ponds, reservoirs, ect.
7) If the water cycle stopped life as we know it would stop. Things would dry out and all the
water might be unusable.
8) Even on cloudy the solar energy from the sun powers the water cycle.
9) Condensation is the opposite of evaporation.
10) Liquid water is evaporated into a gas, the gas condenses into a cloud, precipitation falls
from the cloud in a frozen solid state.
11) Condensation is the conversion of a gas turning into a liquid.
12) Water is evaporated from the ocean; it condenses over the ocean, falls back to the ocean in
the form of rain where the cycle repeats. Other examples may apply.
13) Water can be temporarily stuck in a glacier, lake or ocean. However, eventually the water
will return to the water cycle, although it may take thousands of years or more.
14) Evaporation and transpiration are examples of a liquid turning into a gas.
15) The forces behind the water cycle are the sun, gravity, atmosphere and landforms.
16) The oceans in the polar regions are cooler because the receive less solar energy from the sun
because of the curvature of the earth.
17) Other impacts of the Coriolis Effect include the way air planes or missiles move.
18) As water is evaporated by the sun and lifted into the atmosphere, gravity pulls the water
back to Earth in the form of precipitation. Gravity also causes the runoff to flow through
rivers and streams back to the ocean. Along its way gravity pulls against the water eroding
the earth, cutting canyons and transporting sediments.
19) As water is constantly traveling through the water cycle it is releasing its absorbed heat.
The heat from the Sun that causes water to evaporate is put into the air when the water
condenses into clouds and precipitates. The continuous evaporation and condensation cycle is
a main way heat is transferred from the Earth's surface to the atmosphere and in moving heat
around the Earth.
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6th Grade PSI
The Roles of Water
20) While solar energy influences all surface process its impact is not consistent because the
Earth is a sphere. The amount of sunlight and its influence depends on the angle of the earth
in relation to the sun.
21) The warmest water would be found closest to the equator and the coolest water would be
found closest to the poles.
22) An ocean current is the movement of ocean water that flows in one of the Earth's oceans.
23) When compared to the land masses on Earth, the oceans store much more heat. Since the
majority of the thermal energy on Earth is stored in the oceans they are important in the
regulation of Earth’s climate.
24) It takes approximately 1000 years for a current to complete the cycle.
25) The global conveyor belt is a deep ocean current are fueled by differences in the differences
in temperature and salinity.
26) The rotation of the Earth causes the current in the northern hemisphere to most rotate
clockwise and currents in the southern hemisphere to rotate counter clockwise.
27) A gyre is when the warm equatorial surface waters move towards the poles where they cool
and return back towards the equator along the sea floor.
28) Wind blowing over the warm ocean water helps move the surface water and push the current
along.
29) differences in temperature and salinity power the Global Conveyor Belt
30) Water temperature influences the currents because they move from warm to cold.
Landmasses influence currents by changing or redirecting their course.
31) Deposition is when soil and rocks are deposited or left somewhere different than where they
started.
32) Weathering is occurring when water freezes in a rock crack. The expansion of the water
breaks the rock into smaller pieces and sediment.
33) Sink holes and caverns are proof of underground weathering and erosion. They show that
rocks and soil were broken down and then carried away.
34) Glaciers can both cause weathering and erosion. They can break down the earth’s surface
and move the sediment away.
35) Deposition is when the pieces of Earth’s surface that have been broken down through
weathering and/or erosion are moved from one place and stop in another.
36) Weathering
37) The breakdown below the surface is an example of erosion because particles are moved
away from their location via moving water underground. The breakdown at the top of the
surface is weathering because the large pieces of rock or soil at the surface are changed,
resulting in a change of the landscape.
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6th Grade PSI
The Roles of Water
38) Glaciers can move sediment from one area to another. They can also change the landscape
through their own formation and breaking apart. They can create valleys and cause changes
in the surrounding rock and mountain formations.
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6th Grade PSI
The Roles of Water