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The Global Hydrologic-Climatic Cycle

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The Global Hydrologic-Climatic Cycle 1 THE GLOBAL CYCLE OF WATER *) 1.1 INTRODUCTION The global hydrological cycle together with its driving force, solar radiation, forms the basic resource for primary biological production. It provides the water that is required for the assimilation of carbon and plays an important role in the supply of nutrients and their transport. Moreover, the hydrological cycle is responsible for the moderate and favourable temperature conditions prevailing on Earth through its linkage with the global atmospheric cycle. The hydrosphere is the interconnection between the biosphere, the atmosphere and the lithosphere, notably integrating the fluxes of water, energy and geochemical compounds. Water is able to execute these tasks because of a number of exceptional properties: 1) high and universal dissolving power, essential for distributing geochemical material and to transport nutrients and to remove waste substances from living organisms 2) high surface tension, causing high capillary forces; together with osmotic forces, this enables water and solute transport within organisms and maintaining a high cellular tension. 3) large heat capacity and heat of vaporisation, inherent to its role as energy transporter 4) maximum density above freezing point, at 40C; this anomaly causes freezing to proceed from the surface downward, slowing down both the heat release and the advancement of the freezing process, thus protecting living organisms 5) high freezing and boiling point relative to its molecular weight, in comparison with similarly structured compounds, such as H2S and H2Se; compared to these compounds, these temperatures would be between -50 and -1000C. All these properties are related to the high cohesion and pseudo-crystalline structure of water. This structure is caused by the eccentricity of the positive hydrogen nuclei with respect to the electrons and the oxygen nucleus, which gives the H2O molecule an electrical polarity or dipole character. In this chapter we will discuss the composition of the hydrosphere and the basic concepts of the hydrological cycle and its interaction with atmospheric circulation. Subsequently, we will consider the individual elements of the hydrological cycle, and their mutual interaction. Finally, *) Original version by J.J.de Vries, professor of hydrology, Free University, Amsterdam Chapter 1 attention is paid to the impact of climatic change and man's interference with the hydrological cycle. 1.2 THE HYDROSPHERE 1.2.1 ORIGIN OF WATER ON EARTH Most probably water has been in our solar system from the beginning and was formed by the thermonuclear fusion process that produced the elements of the periodic system and their compounds. The total amount of water contained on Earth is estimated at some 0.4% by volume, sufficient to form a sphere of ice with a diameter of almost 2500 km and a volume of 8.2109 km3. Most of this water is chemically and physically bound in rocks and minerals within the crust and mantle. The amount of free water, forming the hydrosphere, is estimated at 1.4109 km3 i.e. 17% of the total amount of water on Earth of which 96% is stored in the oceans as saline water. It is generally accepted that most of the water in the hydrosphere has originated from degassing of the Earth's mantle by volcanic eruptions and surfacing lava (basalt) in the course of the 5 billion years of the Earth’s existence. The production by this process is estimated at about 1 km3/year. However, it is known that Earth is also exposed to collisions with cosmic material, including ice comets. An extraterrestrial origin of at least part of the Earth's water is therefore likely. Some of the other planet's satellites and many comets consist almost completely of ice. A well-known example is Halley's Comet. A rough estimate gives a total amount of water in our solar system, that is 100 000 times the mass of water in our oceans (Kotwicki, 1991). 1.2.2 THE HYDRO-TECTONIC CYCLE As explained before, the Earth's hydrosphere acquires water both from the mantle and possibly from space, a gain of the order of 1 km3/year. On the other hand, a smaller quantity escapes into space and another unknown amount returns to the mantle through plate-tectonic processes. This process is driven by thermal convection currents, which move the rigid lithosphere as a coherent layer over the more plastic asthenosphere (Fig.1.1). Magma moves upward into fractures (spreading centres) in the ocean floor, where it forms new oceanic crust. This causes the lithosphere to move away from the spreading centre. At the other limb of the convection cell, the lithosphere sinks downward in a subduction zone. Where old lithosphere disappears in the mantle, ocean water is dragged with the crust to depths of hundreds of kilometres and becomes involved in the re-melting of sediments into new magma. Another part of this water is exhaled again by the associated volcanic and magmatic activity. This entire process is referred to as the hydro-tectonic cycle. This cycle acts on a geologic time scale of millions of years and is quantitatively negligible compared to the amount and distribution of water in the present hydrological circulation at the Earth's surface and the lower atmosphere. The difference in dynamics of this hydrological cycle and the hydro-tectonic cycle is also reflected in the respective energy fluxes involved. 2 The Hydrological Cycle Fig.1.1 Schematic representation of the hydro-tectonic cycle, showing a cross-section through an ocean-continent boundary. The upward moving mantle material forces the oceanic crust to slide under (to subduct) the continental crust. 1. Precipitation 6. Fluid released by deformation 2. Evapo(transpi)ration 7. Fluid released from magma and metamorphic 3. Vapour transport reactions (juvenile water) 4. Topography driven flow (meteoric water) 8. Volcanic emissions 5. Sea(water) trapped in subducted sediments (connate water) The driving force behind the hydrological cycle, solar radiation, produces a flux at the Earth's surface of 5.2109 J/m2/year, whereas the driving force behind the tectonic processes, the Earth's internal heat production, delivers about 2.0106 J/m2/year. The volcanic and magmatic exhalations, however, do have a qualitative effect on the hydrosphere by producing chemical compounds and concentrated heat. Volcanic dust and gases may influence the Earth's heat balance and thus its climate and hydrological cycle over a period of years. Plate-tectonics and continental drift change the shape of the earth on a time scale of millions of years by a geographic re-arrangement of oceans and continents, uplift of the Earth’s crust and the formation of mountain ranges. In the course of the Earth’s evolution these morphological changes have caused changes in world-wide climatic conditions and in the hydrosphere. Other long-term influences on the planet's climate are caused by systematic shifts in the Earth's orbit and exposure to the sun, with associated changes in incoming solar radiation, on time scales of 104 to 105 years. 3 Chapter 1 Table 1.1 Volumes and fluxes of water and their turn-over time in the different compartments of the hydrosphere. The volumes are mainly according to Baumgartner and Reichel (1975), with some additions. Volume % of total flux turn-over time in 103 km3 freshwater 103 km3/year year Salt water Oceans 1 350 000 425 3000 1) F r e s h w a t e r Ice 27 800 69.3 2.4 12 000 2) Groundwater 8 000* 29.9 15 500 3) Lakes 220** 0.55 Soil moisture 70 0.18 90 0.8 4) Atmosphere 15.5 0.038 496 0.03 5) Reservoirs 5 0.013 Rivers 2 0.005 40 0.05 6) Biomass 2 0.005 T o t a l 40 114 100 * < 5000 m depth, based on a porosity of 1%, rather than porosity of 1.5%, resulting in a volume of 12106 km3 (see Volume V) ** about 50% contains salt or brackish water; cf. volume of 177103 km3 (Volume III) 1) Flux is oceanic evaporation 2) Flux estimated from discharge 3) Flux estimated at 37% of total continental discharge (base flow) 4) Flux estimated at 80% of continental rainfall 5) Flux is total rainfall = total evaporation 6) Flux is total discharge from continents 1.2.3 DISTRIBUTION OF WATER OVER THE VARIOUS RESERVOIRS The hydrosphere can be characterised as a system of different reservoirs from which water, solutes and energy are exchanged by the hydrological cycle. On a large scale this circulation is driven by thermal energy of solar radiation and by potential- and pressure energy produced by gravity. On a small scale, capillary and osmotic forces play a role in water transport in soil and plants, whereas geothermal energy produces thermo-mineral convection currents in deep aquifers. As mentioned before, the total amount of water in the hydrosphere is estimated at 1.4109 km3, of 4 The Hydrological Cycle which 96% resides in the oceans. The remaining 4% consists of freshwater, which exists and moves only by the virtue of the continuous distillation process that turns salt water into a freshwater by evaporation and subsequent condensation. Most of this freshwater is more or less locked up in ice caps, icebergs and glaciers, notably on Antarctica and Greenland. Were it to melt, the world's rivers could flow uninterruptedly for more than 500 years on this quantity of water. An estimate of the distribution of freshwater over the various global reservoirs and the turn-over time of the different reservoirs is given in Table 1.1. There is considerable uncertainty about some of these figures, especially for groundwater at greater depths. Also estimates of the ice volume vary considerably, from 22 000 km3 to 43 000 km3 .
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