The purpose of the article below is to tell what the hydrosphere is, to show how rich our planet is in water resources, and how important it is not to upset the balance in nature. The planet Earth is covered with three shells. These are the atmosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere. Through their interaction, life was born. They accumulate solar energy and distribute it among all organisms.
Let's consider what the hydrosphere is.
Definition
To put it simply, this is the water shell of the Earth. These are all kinds of sources of precious liquid. This includes seas, oceans, rivers, glaciers, underground rivers and more. Part of the hydrosphere is water in the atmosphere and in all living organisms. But the largest share is the s alt water of the oceans.
If we consider from a scientific point of view what the hydrosphere is, then this is a complex of sciences, which includes a whole subdivision of research disciplines. Consider what sciences are studying the components of the hydrosphere.
- Hydrology. The scope of the study is land surface water bodies: rivers, lakes, swamps, canals, ponds, reservoirs.
- Oceanology -studies the oceans.
- Glaciology - ground ice.
- Meteorology - liquid in the atmosphere and its impact on weather and climate.
- Hydrochemistry - the chemical composition of water.
- Hydrogeology deals with groundwater.
- Geocryology - solid water: glaciers and eternal snows.
- Hydrogeochemistry is a young science that studies the chemical composition of the entire hydrosphere.
- Hydrogeophysics is also a new direction, the basis of which is the physical properties of the Earth's water shell.
Composition of the hydrosphere
What does it consist of? The hydrosphere includes all types of moisture on the planet. Its volume is difficult to imagine. Scientists have calculated that it is 1370.3 million km3. In the entire history of the planet, the mass of water has never changed.
Interesting fact: every fifth person wants to drink plenty of water. But no matter how much he drinks, he fails to do so.
Consider the composition of the hydrosphere:
- World Ocean. It occupies a large part, or rather, almost the entire volume of the water shell. It includes four oceans: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and Arctic.
- Sushi water. This includes all sources of precious liquid that can be found on the continents: rivers, lakes, swamps.
- Groundwater is a huge supply of moisture located in the lithosphere.
- Glaciers and permanent snows, which account for much of the water supply.
- Water in the atmosphere and in living organisms.
Percentage of sourcesEarth's hydrosphere is shown in the figure below.
The water cycle in nature
Water is a unique substance. Its molecules have such a strong bond that it is very difficult to separate them. But its even greater uniqueness is that, unlike other important elements, it can exist in natural conditions in three states at once: liquid, solid, gaseous.
The water cycle in nature plays an important function in the distribution of moisture on the planet. The main source of fresh liquid in the atmosphere is the World Ocean. From it, water, under the influence of the sun, evaporates, turns into clouds and moves in the atmosphere, while s alt remains. This is how a fresh liquid appears.
There are two cycles: large and small.
The Great Water Cycle concerns the renewal of the waters of the oceans. And since most of the moisture passes into a gaseous state from its surface, it returns there along with drains, where it falls in the form of precipitation.
If the big cycle covers the renewal of water on the planet as a whole, then the small one concerns only land. The same process is observed there: evaporation, condensation, precipitation and runoff into the oceans.
More water evaporates in the ocean than in rivers and lakes. On the contrary, there is a lot of precipitation on the continents, and little over open water spaces.
Cycling speed
The components of the Earth's hydrosphere are updated at different rates. The fastest water supply is replenished inthe human body, since it consists of 80% of it. Within a few hours with plenty of drinks, you can fully restore the balance.
But the glaciers and the oceans are updated very slowly. In order for completely new icebergs to appear in the polar latitudes, almost 10 thousand years are needed. One can imagine how much ice has already existed in the Arctic and Antarctica.
Water in the oceans is clearing a little faster - in 2.7 thousand years.
The nutritional power of living organisms
Water is a unique chemical compound of hydrogen and oxygen. It has no smell, taste, color, but easily absorbs them from the environment. Its molecules are difficult to separate, but at the same time they contain ions of chlorine, sulfur, carbon, sodium.
Life originated in water and is found in all metabolic organisms. There are animals whose bodies are almost liquid. Jellyfish are 99% water, fish are only 75%. There is even more juice in plants: cucumber - 95%, carrot - 90%, apple - 85%, potato - 80%.
Water Shell Functions
The Earth's hydrosphere performs several vital functions for the planet:
- Accumulating. All of the Sun's energy goes into the ocean first. There it is stored and distributed throughout the planet. Such a process ensures the preservation of the average positive temperature.
- Oxygen production. Most of this substance is produced by phytoplankton located in the oceans.
- Distribution of fresh water throughcycles.
- Provides resources. The world's oceans contain significant food reserves, as well as other useful extractable resources.
- Recreational potential for a person who uses the ocean for their own purposes: for energy, cleaning, cooling, entertainment.
Hydrosphere and man
Depending on how water is used, two separate categories can be distinguished:
- Water consumers. This includes those branches of human activity that use a clear liquid to achieve their goals, but do not return it. There are a lot of such activities: non-ferrous and ferrous metallurgy, agriculture, chemical, light industry and others.
- Water users. These are industries that use water in their activities, but always return it. This includes sea and river transport, fisheries, water delivery services to the population, water utilities.
Interesting fact: a city with a population of 1 million people needs 300,000 m3 of clean drinking water per day. At the same time, the liquid returns to the ocean, polluted, unsuitable for living organisms, and the ocean has to clean it up on its own.
Classified by usage
For a person, water has a different meaning. We eat, wash and clean in it. Therefore, scientists proposed the following gradation:
- Drinking water - pure water without toxic and chemical substances, suitable for consumption in its raw form.
- Mineral water - water enriched with mineral components, which is extracted from the bowels of the earth. Used for medicinal purposes.
- Industrial water - used in production, undergoes one or two stages of purification.
- Heat energy water - the intake is taken from thermal springs.
Technical water
Water for technical needs can be completely different. In agriculture, it is used for irrigation, and it does not need to be cleaned. For energy purposes, for space heating, water is converted into a gaseous state. Hospitals, baths, laundries receive household liquid with less cleaning.
Water used in industry is often polluted. But more than half of the consumed volume is used for cooling the units. In this case, it is not contaminated and can be reused.
Problems of the hydrosphere
The World Ocean is an environment that is capable of self-purification. But there are 7 billion people on Earth, and the rate of pollution is much greater than the rate of renewal. This can lead to irreparable consequences. Consider the main sources of hydrosphere pollution:
- Industrial, agricultural, domestic wastewater.
- Coastal waste.
- Oil and oil pollution.
- Heavy metals enter the oceans.
- Acid rain, the result of which is the destruction of the areola of living beings.
- Transport.
Pollution of the seas and oceans
Man andhydrosphere must exist in the world. After all, from how we treat the source of our life, so nature will repay us. Already, the surface of the oceans and seas is very heavily polluted with oil products and waste. More than 20% of the water surface is covered with an impermeable film of oil, through which oxygen and steam cannot be exchanged. This leads to the death of ecosystems.
Due to significant pollution, natural resources are depleted. A good example is the Aral Sea. Since 1984, no fish have been found here.
Since 1943, the hydrosphere has been contaminated with dangerous radioactive substances. They were buried on the seabed. This has been prohibited since 1993. But for 50 years of detrimental impact, a person could cause irreparable harm to the ocean.
Danger from rivers and lakes
Pollution of land surface water is even more dangerous for humans. After all, it is from there that fresh water is taken for household needs and for consumption. Today in Russia, most of the rivers are classified as heavily polluted. Here is the ranking of the most dangerous water bodies in Russia:
- Volga;
- Ob;
- Yenisei;
- Irtysh;
- Kama;
- Iset;
- Lena;
- Pechora;
- Oka;
- Tom.
Solving environmental problems
Humanity must understand that the more attention we pay to the preservation of purity in nature, the greater the chance for our descendants to live in a favorable environment. In pursuit of money and profit, manyenterprises neglect the basic rules of cleaning. The main task is the construction of cleaning filters in coastal areas, in places of the greatest accumulation of waste and providing enterprises with modern technologies aimed at environmental safety.
Afterword
From this article we learned what the hydrosphere is, what are its main components, and what problems the World Ocean faces. The task of each of us is to understand that the world was created not by man, but by nature, and we exploit it mercilessly, not realizing the consequences.
