Water enters the lake from rain, snow, melting ice, streams/rivers, groundwater.
Has an outlet, meaning that water can also leave by a river or other means.
2. Closed (Terminal) Lakes 封闭湖
Body of water surrounded by land.
Water enters the lake from rain, snow, melting ice, streams/rivers, groundwater.
Does NOT have an outlet for the water to leave other than evaporation. When the water evaporates, it leaves behind salts and minerals that were dissolved in the water.
3. Reservoirs 水库
Water storage that is manmade.
Usually formed by building a dam across a river or controlling the outlet of a natural lake. The amount of water in and out is controlled.
Used to provide water in case of drought and control flooding.
4. Rivers 河流
Ribbon-like body of water that flows downhill because of gravity. Can be wide and deep or shallow and narrow.
Has a starting point called a headwater; can start from rain, snowmelt, groundwater coming to the surface, or form from a lake.
5. Ice Caps 冰帽
Thick layer of ice and snow over a large area, fewer than 50,000 square kilometers (19,000 square miles); it’s called an ice sheet if it’s larger than that.
Usually found at North and South Poles. These are called polar ice caps.
Forms when snow builds up and gets pressed together. Are slightly dome-shaped.
Most living things can’t live on an ice cap, but many animals live around the ice cap borders (edge).
6. Glaciers 冰山
Huge mass of ice that moves slowly over land, often called ‘rivers of ice.’
Can form on mountainsides and move down through valleys (alpine) or form as broad domes and spread from the center, covering everything around them (ice sheets).
Form when snow builds up and presses together.
7. Oceans 海洋
Huge body of water that covers 71% of Earth’s surface.
The ocean is one body of water, but has been divided into regions: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic oceans.
Oceans collect water from rivers flowing into it.
8. Groundwater 地下水
Water that is in the ground in the spaces between dirt, sand, and pebbles, and in cracks in rocks. Fills empty spaces underground.
Created from rain, snowmelt, water draining from sprinklers – anything that causes water to go into the ground.
Can be removed from ground through wells. Very important in dry, desert climates.