Oceanography

Ocean floorzones/shapes
Seas
The word sea can, aside from referring to the World Ocean,
also mean a specific, much smaller body of water, such as
the North Sea or the Red Sea. There is no sharp distinction
between a sea in this sense and an ocean, though seas are
generally smaller, and are often partly (as marginal seas) or
wholly (as inland seas) bordered by land. However,
the Sargasso Sea has no coastline and lies within a circular
current, the North Atlantic Gyre. It is a distinctive body of
water with brownSargassum seaweed and calm blue water,
very different from the rest of the Atlantic Ocean. Seas are
generally larger than lakes, and contain salt water rather than
freshwater, but some geographic entities known as "seas" are
enclosed inland bodies of water that are not salty: for
instance, the Sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake. The Law of
the Sea states that all of the ocean is "sea"
seas
What is a glacier?
Glaciers are made up of
fallen snow that, over many years,
compresses into large,
thickened ice masses.
glaciers
[Where,how they form and move]

Glaciers begin to form when snow remains in the same area
year-round, where enough snow accumulates to transform
into ice. Each year, new layers of snow bury and compress the
previous layers. This compression forces the snow to recrystallize, forming grains similar in size and shape to grains of
sugar. Gradually the grains grow larger and the air pockets
between the grains get smaller, causing the snow to slowly
compact and increase in density. After about two winters, the
snow turns into firnan intermediate state between snow and
glacier ice. At this point, it is about two-thirds as dense as
water. Over time, larger ice crystals become so compressed
that any air pockets between them are very tiny. In very old
glacier ice, crystals can reach several inches in length. For most
glaciers, this process takes more than a hundred years.
The sheer weight of a thick layer of ice, or the force of gravity on the ice
mass, causesglaciers to flow very slowly. Ice is a soft material, in
comparison to rock, and is much more easily deformed by this relentless
pressure of its own weight. Ice may flow down mountain valleys, fan out
across plains, or in some locations, spread out onto the sea. Movement
along the underside of a glacier is slower than movement at the top due to
the friction created as it slides along the ground's surface, and in some
cases where the base of the glacier is very cold, the movement at the
bottom can be a tiny fraction of the speed of flow at the surface.
Glaciers periodically retreat or advance, depending on the amount of snow
accumulation or evaporation or melt that occurs. This retreat and advance
refers only to the position of the terminus, or snout, of the glacier. Even as
it retreats, the glacier still deforms and moves downslope, like a conveyor
belt. For most glaciers, retreating and advancing are very slow occurrences,
requiring years or decades to have a significant effect. However, when
glaciers retreat rapidly, movement may be visible over a few months or
years. For instance, massive glacier retreat has been recorded in Glacier
Bay, Alaska. Glaciers that once terminated in the ocean have now receded
onto land, retreating far up valleys. Over the past several decades, scientists
and researchers have begun to capture data and photographic evidence of
this recession over time.
Ground water/aquife and

water cycle
Groundwater (or ground water) is the water present

beneath Earth's surface insoil pore spaces and in
the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an
unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a
usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or
fractures and voids in rock become completely saturated with
water is called the water table. Groundwater is rechargedfrom,
and eventually flows to, the surface naturally; natural discharge
often occurs atsprings and seeps, and can
form oases or wetlands. Groundwater is also often withdrawn
for agricultural, municipal, and industrial use by constructing and
operating extraction wells. The study of the distribution and
movement of groundwater is hydrogeology, also called
groundwater hydrology.
Typically, groundwater is thought of as water flowing through shallow aquifers, but,

in the technical sense, it can also contain soil moisture, permafrost (frozen soil),
immobile water in very low permeability bedrock, and deep geothermal or oil
formation water. Groundwater is hypothesized to provide lubrication that can
possibly influence the movement of faults. It is likely that much of Earth's
subsurface contains some water, which may be mixed with other fluids in some
instances. Groundwater may not be confined only to Earth. The formation of some
of the landforms observed on Mars may have been influenced by groundwater.
There is also evidence that liquid water may also exist in the subsurface of Jupiter's
moonEuropa.
Groundwater is often cheaper, more convenient and less vulnerable
to pollution than surface water. Therefore, it is commonly used for public water
supplies. For example, groundwater provides the largest source of usable water
storage in the United States and California annually withdraws the largest amount
of groundwater of all the states.Underground reservoirs contain far more water
than the capacity of all surface reservoirs and lakes in the US, including the Great
Lakes. Many municipal water supplies are derived solely from groundwater.
Polluted groundwater is less visible, but more difficult to clean up, than pollution in
rivers and lakes. Groundwater pollution most often results from improper disposal
of wastes on land. Major sources include industrial and household chemicals and
garbage landfills, excessive fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture, industrial
waste lagoons, tailings and processwastewater from mines, oil field brine pits,
leaking underground oil storage tanks and pipelines, sewage sludge and septic
systems.
An aquifer is an underground layer of waterbearingpermeable rock, rock fractures or

unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt) from
which groundwater can be extracted using a water
well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the
characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology.
Related terms include aquitard, which is a bed of
low permeability along an
aquifer, and aquiclude (or aquifuge), which is a solid,
impermeable area underlying or overlying an
aquifer. If the impermeable area overlies the aquifer,
pressure could cause it to become a confined
aquifer.
The water cycle or hydrologic is a continuous cycle

where water evaporates, travels into the air and
becomes part of a cloud, falls down to earth as
precipitation, and then evaporates again. This repeats
again and again in a never-ending cycle. Water keeps
moving and changing from a solid to a liquid to a gas,
over and over again.Precipitation creates runoff that
travels over the ground surface and helps to fill lakes
and rivers. It also percolates or moves downward
through openings in the soil to
replenish aquifers under the ground. Some places
receive more precipitation than others do. These areas
are usually close to oceans or large bodies of water
that allow more water to evaporate and form clouds.
Other areas receive less precipitation. Often these
areas are far from water or near mountains. As clouds
move up and over mountains, the water vapor
condenses to form precipitation and freezes. Snow falls

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Oceanography

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Ocean floorzones/shapes

[Where,how they form and move]

Ground water/aquife and

Groundwater (or ground water) is the water present

Typically, groundwater is thought of as water flowing through shallow aquifers, but,

An aquifer is an underground layer of waterbearingpermeable rock, rock fractures or

The water cycle or hydrologic is a continuous cycle

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