Discovering Earth's Water Wonders

1. Chapter 1 - Lesson 2 Streams and Rivers, Lakes Chapter 1 The Earth’s Bodies of Water

2. Streams and Rivers page 26 • Water covers more than 70% of the Earth • Water is in the ground and in the air we breathe • People, Plants, and Animals all need water to live Weathering - is the process of breaking up rocks into smaller pieces called sediment

3. Streams and Rivers • Streams are bodies of water that flow over land in a channel • Most streams begin on high ground, among hills or mountains • The sources of a stream usually consist of melting snow/ice or an overflowing lake • At the end of a stream is the mouth which empties into another body of water

4. Streams and Rivers • Streams can be as small as a shallow brook • Or as large as a river, the largest and most important streams • Most rivers form from many smaller streams coming together, these are called tributaries Tributaries – are streams or rivers that flow into a larger stream or river

5. Streams and Rivers • The more tributaries that empty into a river the larger the river grows • Together the river and its tributaries are called a river system River System – a river and all of its tributaries

6. Streams and Rivers • Each continent, except Antarctica, has major rivers and river systems. • Africa has the Nile, Asia has the Yangtze, Australia has the Murray, Europe has the Danube, North America has the Mississippi, and South America has the Amazon

7. Streams and Rivers, Lakes Drainage Basin – Land drained by a river system The Nile is the Earth’s longest river, it flows from Central Africa to the Mediterranean Sea The Amazon is the Earth’s largest river, carrying more water than the Mississippi, Nile and Yangtze combined River Systems carry or drain water away from the land around them (drainage basin) Rivers are important for many reasons including drinking, cleaning, travel and trade

8. Streams and Rivers Drainage Basin

9. Why did many of the world’s first settlements form along rivers? (pg.27)

10. Lakes Lakes are bodies of water surrounded by land The word lake comes from the Greek language meaning hole because most lakes are holes in the Earth that fill with water Lakes exist on every continent except Antartica The greatest amount of lakes exist where there was once many glaciers such as North America and northern Europe

11. Lakes During the last Ice Age, glaciers gouged huge holes in the Earth and the holes filled with the water from the melted glaciers Lakes also form where rainwater collects in huge holes made in other ways Crater Lake in Oregon was formed in a crater of an extinct volcano

12. Lakes Rift – a long and deep crack in the Earth Lake Baikal in Russia is the deepest lake on Earth measuring 5,315 feet deep it was formed in a huge crack in the Earth’s crust called a rift

13. Lakes H – Huron O – Ontario M – Michigan E – Erie S – Superior North America has the most lakes out of all of the continents The largest of the North American lakes are the Great Lakes One fifth of all of the fresh water on the Earth’s surface is found in the Great Lakes

14. Lakes There are some large bodies of water called seas that are actually lakes The difference is that they are not fresh water, but salt water and that is why they are called seas instead of lakes The Dead Sea, Sea of Galilee, and the Caspian Sea are lakes The lowest lying lake is the Dead Sea between Israel and Jordan The highest lake is Lake Titicaca in South America

15. Lakes The Dead Sea

16. Lakes Lake Titicaca

17. Lakes Reservoir – a lake that forms behind a human made dam Not all lakes are made by nature Some are man-made and are called resevoirs People build dams to control river flooding or to generate electricity

18. Terms to Know • Reservoir • Rift • Drainage basin • River system • Tributaries • How did Ice Age glaciers form lakes in North America and Europe? (pg. 28)