Surface Water Vocabulary Words

1. Surface Water Vocabulary Words Third Grade

2. Surface Water • Water found above ground, on land. It can be streams, rivers, ponds, or lakes or even puddles!

3. Fresh Water • Water that is not high in salt content, found in most lakes, rivers, streams and ponds. Asheville North Carolina

4. Runoff • Excess water, not absorbed by the soil, that flows downhill.

5. Headwater • The upper part of a stream. Many times, several of these will come together to make a stream or river. Sometimes they form waterfalls. Headwaters and waterfalls at Nantahala North Carolina . These are in the mountains,

6. Stream • A small river or channel of water. • This is a stream in Western Carolina.

7. River A large stream of flowing water. This is the Cape Fear River in North Carolina

8. Dam A barrier that stops the flow of water • Cheoah Dam in Graham County, North Carolina

9. Lake A large body of surface water surrounded by land. This is Lake Auman in West End, North Carolina.

10. Delta An area of land formed by sediment at the mouth of a river. River delta in East Carolina. Some times deltas are called estuaries.

11. Watershed • The area of land that catches rain and snowmelt when it flows as runoff. A watershed includes all the water from the mountains to the ocean.

12. Salt Water • Water that contains salt, found in oceans and sometimes in lakes. This is a shipwreck off the North Carolina Coast

13. Ocean • The whole body of salt water that covers most of Earth, or one of the sections of this water.

14. Glacier A large body of accumulated ice and compacted snow that is found year-round and slowly moves downhill. Sometimes glaciers look like a river of ice. There are no glaciers in North Carolina.

15. Polar Caps • Areas of permanent ice that cover the north and south poles of Earth.