• Earth’s surface is covered with more ocean than land.
• The clouds show water that is present in the Earth’s atmosphere.
• Water as a liquid:
o Liquids have no shape.
o Liquids take the shape of objects that contain them such as a river, dam or a glass.
• Water as a solid:
o Water freezes at zero degrees Celsius and changes into ice.
o Ice is a solid.
o Hail, frost and snow are all solid forms of water.
• Water as a gas:
o Gas forms of water is water vapour.
o Water vapour is lighter than dry air.
o We cannot see water vapour in the air.
• Processes associated with water’s changing states:
o An increase in temperature can cause ice to melt. Melting happens, when water
changes from a solid state into a liquid state. Melting takes place at temperatures
above 0℃.
o A further rise in temperature can cause liquid to turn into a gas – evaporation.
o A drop in temperature will cause water vapour to change back into a liquid –
condensation.
o Sublimation happens when ice changes to water vapour without going through the
liquid state.
• Occurrence of salt water and fresh
water:
o 71% of Earth’s surface is water.
o 97% of this water is in the
oceans, 2% is ice at poles and
less than 1% is fresh water on
land and in the atmosphere.
o People, plants and animals
need fresh water to survive.
1
, Grade 10 – Platinum
• Water in the atmosphere:
o Water in the atmosphere occurs as liquid, gas or solid.
o When water is released from clouds in the form of rain, hail or snow – precipitation.
o See water in the atmosphere as rain during a storm or in the form of clouds.
o About 80% of the water in the atmosphere comes from evaporation over the oceans.
o Through evaporation, the atmosphere transports water from the land and the oceans
into the clouds, from where it falls to Earth again as rain.
• Water on land:
o Surface run-off: water which flows on top of the land as little trickles.
o Channel run-off: water that collects in streams and rivers.
o Rivers and lakes:
§ The size of the river depends on how much water it contains.
§ Most settlements in the past were built near to rivers because rivers provide
fresh water for drinking, farming and water for transport.
§ Some rivers flow into lakes and dams.
§ A dam is an artificial lake usually made by building a dam wall across a river.
§ Lakes are large areas of water that occur naturally on land.
§ Formation of lakes:
• Tectonic activity can cause Earth’s crust to move, changing the flow of
rivers and creating rift valleys.
• Glaciers and ice sheets can carve out valleys and basins.
• A river that flows into a low flat basin will spread out and form a lake.
o Groundwater:
§ Water that occurs under the ground in saturated rocks and sand.
§ The water infiltrates into the rocks and soil by seeping or slowly penetrating into
the soil and cracks in tocks under the ground.
§ This water becomes part of the subsurface flow.
§ People drill boreholes and wells to access
underground water.
§ The soil and cracks in rocks fill up with
water, creating a saturated layer of soil and
rocks under the surface.
§ Water table: the top of the layer of saturated
rocks and soil below the land’s surface.
§ The line that divides the wet half from the
dry half is the water table.
2
, Grade 10 – Platinum
• Water in the oceans:
o Most precipitation happens over the oceans.
o Rivers and groundwater flow also returns to the oceans.
o Hydrological cycle.
Unit 2: The hydrological cycle
• The hydrological cycle is a collection of processes that work together to recycle Earth’s water
continuously.
• Processes that drive the hydrological cycle:
o Closed system – no water added or removed.
o Evaporation: when water is heated by the sun, some water is changed into water
vapour (1).
o Transpiration: the process of absorption of water by a plant, the transfer of the water
through the plant, and the release of the water into the atmosphere through the plant’s
leaves.
o Evapotranspiration: the combined
processes of evaporation and
transpiration that transfer water from the
land into the atmosphere (2).
o Condensation: cooling turns water
vapour back to water droplets (3).
o Precipitation: the falling to ground of
water in its solid or liquid states from the
atmosphere (4).
• Processes that take place on land:
o Surface flow: includes surface run-off and channel-flow. During heavy rain, infiltration
cannot take place quickly enough and so water flows over the surface. We see surface
run-off clearly in urban areas on the pavements and the roads. Surface run-off and
infiltration may deliver water into rivers and streams, where it flows away as part of the
channel flow. River water may flow into dams and lakes, which store it for a time.
People, plants and animals use water. But eventually this water is returned to the
system through evaporation, transpiration and waste water disposal.
o Infiltration: some of the groundwater from this layer is taken up by plants through their
root systems. This water will be returned to the atmosphere through transpiration.
3
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