The water cycle & freshwater

1. What is the dry region on the leeward (downwind) side of a mountain range called: a rain shadow or a delta?

2. When snow and ice on a high mountain turn directly into water vapour in dry sunlight without melting first, that process is: sublimation or runoff?

3. Where is most of Earth’s fresh water locked up: in glaciers and polar ice caps, or in clouds?

4. What stage of the water cycle occurs when liquid water at the ocean surface warms and turns into water vapour: evaporation or precipitation?

5. What do we call an underground layer of permeable rock, sand or gravel that holds groundwater: an aquifer or a canopy?

6. What do we call the upper level of underground rock or soil that is completely saturated with groundwater: the water table or the treeline?

7. What stage of the water cycle occurs when rising water vapour cools high in the atmosphere and forms tiny cloud droplets: condensation or infiltration?

8. What energy source drives the global water cycle by warming ocean and land surfaces: the Sun or the Moon?

9. What stage of the water cycle occurs when cloud droplets grow heavy enough to fall as rain, snow, sleet or hail: precipitation or evaporation?

10. Where is the largest reservoir of water on Earth (about 97% of all Earth’s water) stored: in the oceans and seas, or in rivers?

11. What happens to river discharge shortly after heavy rainfall in its drainage basin: river flow increases, or river flow stops?

12. How does paving over grassy soil with impermeable concrete affect rainwater during a storm: it increases surface runoff, or it increases infiltration?