Various types of water bodies are present throughout the world, including oceans, rivers and lakes. In addition, groundwater basins are important storage areas, which have their own ecosystems and can exchange flows with surface waters.
Oceans
An ocean is a major body of surface saline water, and represents a major component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is inundated by oceans or seas, a continuous feature comprising five major oceans and numerous seas, gulfs and estuaries. More than half of this ocean expanse is greater than 3000 meters in depth. The average oceanic salinity is approximately 3.5%, with extrema ranging from 3.0 to 3.8 percent.
The lateral exchange of waters amongst the oceans is relatively unencumbered, with natural forces of winds, currents and tides driving these exchanges; however, vertical exchange is less free, with water residence times quite high in the deeper ocean layers, e.g. 900 years in the "bathypelagic zone". The major oceanic divisions are defined in part by the continents, various archipelagos, and other criteria: these divisions are (starting with the largest) the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean and the Arctic Ocean.
Rivers and streams
Oceans
An ocean is a major body of surface saline water, and represents a major component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is inundated by oceans or seas, a continuous feature comprising five major oceans and numerous seas, gulfs and estuaries. More than half of this ocean expanse is greater than 3000 meters in depth. The average oceanic salinity is approximately 3.5%, with extrema ranging from 3.0 to 3.8 percent.
The lateral exchange of waters amongst the oceans is relatively unencumbered, with natural forces of winds, currents and tides driving these exchanges; however, vertical exchange is less free, with water residence times quite high in the deeper ocean layers, e.g. 900 years in the "bathypelagic zone". The major oceanic divisions are defined in part by the continents, various archipelagos, and other criteria: these divisions are (starting with the largest) the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean and the Arctic Ocean.
Rivers and streams
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, that eventually discharges to an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river simply flows into the ground when soils are porous and flow rates low, leading to opportunity for groundwater recharge. A river or stream is typically within a channel, made up of a streambed between banks; on vast level expanses, there are often multiple or braided channels Floodplains represent overflow regimes when flow rates are high. Generally the river flow is fed by precipitation driven "surface runoff" from a significant watershed area.
Rivers and streams have two important ecosystems associated with their geometry: the acquatic environmenta and the riparian corridor, or terrestrial habitat adjacent to the stream. Such ecosystems represent special opportunities for "biological corridors" or ecological connectivity.
Lakes
A lake is a generally a static freshwater body, situated within a topographic basin, subject to internal fluid circulation. True lakes are generally land-locked except for hydrologic exchange via river inflow and/or outflow. Geologically lakes are viewed as temporary features, since they are in a process of sedimentation, which will lead to their demise. Most lakes occur in mountainous locales, rift zones or places of past or ongoing glaciation.
Groundwater
Groundwater is any subsurface water held within the Earth's crust, which water is not in direct contact with the atmosphere. Functionally, groundwater saturates the pores and fractures of sand, gravel, and rock formations. Groundwater is a major set of water bodies that interact with surface waters through groundwater recharge on gravelly plains by feeding surface streams in mountainous areas.
Some water underlies the Earth's surface almost everywhere, beneath mountains, plains, and deserts and sometimes at lower depths below surface waters. This water may occur very close to the Earth's surface, as in a wetland, or it may lie many hundreds of feet below the surface, as in some arid regions. Water at very shallow depths might have been resident in the terrestrial earth's crust for only a few hours; at moderate depth, it may have been resident in the terrestrial crust for hundreds of years old; and at great depth or after having flowed long distances from places of entry, groundwater may have resided in the same location within the terrestrial crust for several thousands of years.
Groundwater is stored in, and moves slowly through, moderately to highly permeable rocks called "aquifers". The quantity of groundwater greatly exceeds that in rivers and lakes combined. ((**))
(TM. Noumi)
Aceh, Indonesia (09-Feb-2016)
Picture Reference: Hydrosphere and Aquatic, NGSociety 2016.
Rivers and streams have two important ecosystems associated with their geometry: the acquatic environmenta and the riparian corridor, or terrestrial habitat adjacent to the stream. Such ecosystems represent special opportunities for "biological corridors" or ecological connectivity.
Lakes
A lake is a generally a static freshwater body, situated within a topographic basin, subject to internal fluid circulation. True lakes are generally land-locked except for hydrologic exchange via river inflow and/or outflow. Geologically lakes are viewed as temporary features, since they are in a process of sedimentation, which will lead to their demise. Most lakes occur in mountainous locales, rift zones or places of past or ongoing glaciation.
Groundwater
Groundwater is any subsurface water held within the Earth's crust, which water is not in direct contact with the atmosphere. Functionally, groundwater saturates the pores and fractures of sand, gravel, and rock formations. Groundwater is a major set of water bodies that interact with surface waters through groundwater recharge on gravelly plains by feeding surface streams in mountainous areas.
Some water underlies the Earth's surface almost everywhere, beneath mountains, plains, and deserts and sometimes at lower depths below surface waters. This water may occur very close to the Earth's surface, as in a wetland, or it may lie many hundreds of feet below the surface, as in some arid regions. Water at very shallow depths might have been resident in the terrestrial earth's crust for only a few hours; at moderate depth, it may have been resident in the terrestrial crust for hundreds of years old; and at great depth or after having flowed long distances from places of entry, groundwater may have resided in the same location within the terrestrial crust for several thousands of years.
Groundwater is stored in, and moves slowly through, moderately to highly permeable rocks called "aquifers". The quantity of groundwater greatly exceeds that in rivers and lakes combined. ((**))
(TM. Noumi)
Aceh, Indonesia (09-Feb-2016)
Picture Reference: Hydrosphere and Aquatic, NGSociety 2016.
Hydrosphere
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