http://oceanography.frequentlyasked.info Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 24 Sep 2007 14:46:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The water locked in ice, mostly in Antarctica and in Greenland, is about 1.5 percent of the water in the oceans. But the oceans are so vast that 1.5 percent of them is still a great deal of water-about 5 billion, billion gallons. If we could melt the ice ... http://oceanography.frequentlyasked.info/2007/09/24/water-icebergs-and-upwellings/ In the United States about one third of the flow of all streams is used at least once, so that we are beginning to use a significant fraction of the major readily available water supply. At the present rate of growth of use and of population we will come ... http://oceanography.frequentlyasked.info/2007/09/21/flow-of-streams-in-united-states/ Now we get a hint of the importance of having good "communication" between the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the other oceans. The freer the circulation, the smaller the differences in climate from equator to pole; the more restricted the circulation, the greater the climatic contrasts. A planet with landlocked ... http://oceanography.frequentlyasked.info/2007/09/19/the-water-cycle/ The water in the oceans, the clouds in the sky, and the ice of the polar seas are all parts of the dynamic solar energy-transfer system that makes the earth run. Our available fresh water comes from this global rain and ice-making machine. The controls of climate and rainfall ... http://oceanography.frequentlyasked.info/2007/09/19/the-worlds-water-supply/ In 1960, industry and agriculture in the United States each used about one hundred and fifty billion gallons of water a day. Industrial needs are large and varied. It takes, for example, a hundred thousand gallons of water to manufacture an automobile; an average Sunday paper consumes about two ... http://oceanography.frequentlyasked.info/2007/09/18/nature-of-the-web-of-water-part-vi/ Irrigation is one of man's oldest engineering endeavors. From hand carrying of water to thirsty crops man progressed to digging ditches and building dams to store and diverts water. Perhaps the beaver supplied the complicated model for the first man-made dams. Hammurabi, the ancient Babylonian king, described irrigation when ... http://oceanography.frequentlyasked.info/2007/09/17/the-nature-of-the-water-web-part-v/ Man seems to have been molded in his evolution by the water he must drink. If a list is made of the average concentrations of many of the elements in the average river water of the world and beside it is placed a list of the maximum concentrations of ... http://oceanography.frequentlyasked.info/2007/09/14/nature-of-the-water-web-part-iv/ There is a great variety of natural sources-minerals in rocks and soils, as well as artificial ones-pesticides, chemical manufacturing processes, burning of coal and oil, old thermometers, barometers, radio and television tubes, antifouling paint. Although the total tonnage of mercury exposed to air and water is small, compared to ... http://oceanography.frequentlyasked.info/2007/09/13/nature-of-the-water-web-part-iii/ Today, with all kinds of new compounds entering the water supplies, the specification of allowable limits has become almost impossible; new substances are being added faster than their effects can be assessed. In addition, the toxic effect of a compound may be severe when it is tested alone, but ... http://oceanography.frequentlyasked.info/2007/09/12/nature-of-the-water-web-part-ii/ Population pressure, growing individual water use, severe local water problems, and a growing consciousness of the far-reaching effects of some pollutants force us to look at the Earth's water resources with an eye to measurement. If we regard the total water in the oceans, in ice, in streams, lakes and ... http://oceanography.frequentlyasked.info/2007/09/11/nature-of-the-water-web/