ScienceIQ.com

The Color of The Sunset

Color in the form of pigment does not exist in the atmosphere. Instead, the color we see in the sky results from the scattering, refraction, and diffraction of sunlight by particles in the atmosphere, especially small particles such as air molecules. If there were no particles in the atmosphere, then sunlight would travel straight down to the Earth ...

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Geology

A Hurricane In Brazil?

Hurricanes are terrifying. They rip trees right out of the ground, hurl cars into the air, and flatten houses. Their winds can blow faster than 100 mph. Some hurricanes have been known to pull a wall ... Continue reading

AHurricaneInBrazil
Geology

The San Andreas Fault

Scientists have learned that the Earth's crust is fractured into a series of 'plates' that have been moving very slowly over the Earth's surface for millions of years. Two of these moving plates meet ... Continue reading

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Biology

Endangered Species - The Hawksbill Turtle

The hawksbill turtle's status has not changed since it was listed as endangered in 1970. It is a solitary nester, and thus, population trends or estimates are difficult to determine. The hawksbill is ... Continue reading

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Geology

A National Park of Caves

Carlsbad Caverns National Park has been designated as a world heritage site because of its unique and surprising geology - a story more than 250 million years old that can be read both above and below ... Continue reading

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Water In The Ground

WaterInTheGroundSome water underlies the Earth's surface almost everywhere, beneath hills, mountains, plains, and deserts. It is not always accessible, or fresh enough for use without treatment, and it's sometimes difficult to locate or to measure and describe. This water may occur close to the land surface, as in a marsh, or it may lie many hundreds of feet below the surface, as in some arid areas of the West. Water at very shallow depths might be just a few hours old; at moderate depth, it may be 100 years old; and at great depth or after having flowed long distances from places of entry, water may be several thousands of years old.

Ground water is stored in, and moves slowly through, moderately to highly permeable rocks called aquifers. The word aquifer comes from the two Latin words, aqua, or water, and ferre, to bear or carry. Aquifers literally carry water underground. An aquifer may be a layer of gravel or sand, a layer of sandstone or cavernous limestone, a rubbly top or base of lava flows, or even a large body of massive rock, such as fractured granite, that has sizable openings. In terms of storage at any one instant in time, ground water is the largest single supply of fresh water available for use by humans.

An estimated one million cubic miles of the world's ground water is stored within one-half mile of the land surface. Only a fraction of this reservoir of ground water, however, can be practicably tapped and made available on a perennial basis through wells and springs. The amount of ground water in storage is more than 30 times greater than the nearly 30,000 cubic-miles volume in all the fresh-water lakes and more than the 300 cubic miles of water in all the world's streams at any given time.