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Clerical:
Class will not meet today - Ron is away at the Fine International Conference on Gigapixel Imaging for Science in Pittsburgh, PA today.
Below you will find the lecture notes that go with today's podcast. Review them during class time (or the soonest time covenient to you).
Quizzes 13-16 are due by Noon on Friday, 11/19/10.
The Exam #4 Study Guide is posted.
Homework #9 is posted. It is "due" Wednesday (11/17/10).
Homework #10 (Graded) is posted. It is due Friday (12/3/10).
Themes of the Day:
- The Hydrologic Cycle
- Features of Rivers & Streams
The Hydrologic Cycle
- Mainly driven by solar energy (and gravity, of course)
- Reservoirs:
- Oceans and Seas (saltwater) - 97.5%
- Ice Caps and Glaciers (freshwater) - 1.8%
- Groundwater (mostly freshwater) - 0.62%
- Rivers and Lakes (mostly freshwater) - 0.02%
- Atmospheric (freshwater) - 0.001%
- Processes:
- Evaporation
- Precipitation
- Infiltration
- Groundwater Flow
- Runoff
- Transpiration (perspiration)
- Orographic Precipitation - rain shadows
- USA Precipitation & Runoff
- Water Usage and Droughts - Cadillac Desert, by Mark Reisner
Features of Rivers & Streams
- Drainage Basins, Streams, Rivers, Source (Headwaters), Mouth, Tributaries, Distributaries
- Valley, Flood Plain, Levees, Channel, Bed, Banks
- Braided Rivers - choked with sediment (glacial outwash, deserts) - GigaPans of Braided Rivers: Iceland, Colorado
- Meandering Rivers - usually low gradient - GigaPan: Wind River, Wyoming
Features:
- Meandering channel
- Cutbanks - erosion on outside of a meander bend
- Point Bars - deposition on inside of a meander bend - sand and gravel deposits
- Levees - natural (or artificial) embankment between river and flood plain - Development A -> B -> C
- Cutoff - when a river short circuits a meander bend
- Oxbow Lake - a cutoff meander bend - will often silt up
- Flood Plain - flat lying areas adjacent to river subject to flooding during high water - often well suited for agriculture - silt and mud deposited here
- Deltas
- Alluvial Fans
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