1.
Alapaha River
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The Alapaha River /əˈlæpəhɑː/ is a 202-mile-long river in southern Georgia and northern Florida in the United States. It is a tributary of the Suwannee River, which flows to the Gulf of Mexico, the Hernando de Soto expedition narrative records mention a Yupaha village they encountered after they left Apalachee, the sound of which is suggestive of the Alapaha, a tributary of the Suwanee. Another reference to a village of Atapaha so closely resembles Alapaha that it is reasonable to suppose they are the same, augustine, Florida, probably on the Alapaha River. In the 1840s a German travel writer, Friedrich Gerstäcker wrote a novel called Alapaha, or the Renegades of the Border. A translation of this novel was published in the 1870s as #67 in a series of American narratives published by Beadle. During the American Civil War, the swamps along the Alapaha River in Berrien, Irwin, along its course it passes the Georgia towns of Rebecca, Alapaha, Willacoochee, Lakeland, and Statenville. Near Willacoochee, Georgia, the Alapaha collects the Willacoochee River, in Florida, it collects the Alapahoochee River and the short Little Alapaha River, which rises in Echols County, Georgia, and flows southwestward. The Alapaha River is an intermittent river for part of its course, during periods of low volume, the river disappears underground and becomes a subterranean river. At approximately 2.3 miles downstream from Jennings, Florida is a river sinkhole variously known as the Alapaha River Sink, Suck Hole and it is located at 30. 5855009°N83. 0528016°W /30.5855009, -83.0528016. A short distance away from the Devils Dens, the Dead River enters into the Alapaha River and it is a usually dry river bed with a number of sinkholes, including the Dead River Sink. A few more miles downstream is a sinkhole known as the Dead River Sink or the Siphon. At the latter point during the periods of low water flow, the Alapaha River later reappears at the Alapaha River Rise, which is about a half mile upstream from the confluence of the Alapaha River and the Suwanee River. During a period of low rainfall over 11 miles of the riverbed can be dry as the river goes underground, the United States Board on Geographic Names settled on Alapaha River as the streams name in 1891. According to the Geographic Names Information System, it has also known as
2.
Jennings, Florida
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Jennings is a town in Hamilton County, Florida, United States. The population was 833 at the 2000 census, as of 2004, the population recorded by the U. S. Census Bureau was 843. Jennings is located at 30°36′11″N 83°6′8″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.8 square miles, all land. As of the census of 2000, there were 833 people,282 households, the population density was 461.3 people per square mile. There were 321 housing units at a density of 177.8 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 43. 70% White,43. 10% African American,0. 60% Native American,0. 60% Asian,10. 08% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 22. 69% of the population. 23. 0% of all households were made up of individuals and 11. 7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.89 and the average family size was 3.34. In the town, the population was out with 30. 6% under the age of 18,9. 0% from 18 to 24,25. 7% from 25 to 44,22. 4% from 45 to 64. The median age was 32 years, for every 100 females there were 98.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.3 males, the median income for a household in the town was $25,714, and the median income for a family was $25,938. Males had an income of $25,577 versus $15,982 for females. The per capita income for the town was $12,195, about 23. 8% of families and 30. 8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 42. 9% of those under age 18 and 20. 0% of those age 65 or over. North Hamilton Elementary will be consolidated into a new school, Hamilton County Elementary School. Its opening is scheduled for August 2017, the Suwannee River Regional Library System operates the Jennings Public Library
3.
Sinkhole
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A sinkhole, also known as a cenote, sink, sink-hole, shakehole, swallet, swallow hole, or doline, is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. Most are caused by karst processes—for example, the dissolution of carbonate rocks or suffosion processes. Sinkholes vary in size from 1 to 600 m both in diameter and depth, and vary in form from soil-lined bowls to bedrock-edged chasms, sinkholes may form gradually or suddenly, and are found worldwide. Sinkholes may capture surface drainage from running or standing water, but may form in high. Sinkholes that capture drainage can hold it in limestone caves. These caves may drain into tributaries of larger rivers, the formation of sinkholes involves natural processes of erosion or gradual removal of slightly soluble bedrock by percolating water, the collapse of a cave roof, or a lowering of the water table. Sinkholes often form through the process of suffosion, for example, groundwater may dissolve the carbonate cement holding the sandstone particles together and then carry away the lax particles, gradually forming a void. Occasionally a sinkhole may exhibit a visible opening into a cave below, sinkholes also occur in sandstone and quartzite terrains. As the rock dissolves, spaces and caverns develop underground and these sinkholes can be dramatic, because the surface land usually stays intact until there is not enough support. Then, a collapse of the land surface can occur. Sinkholes also form from human activity, such as the collapse of abandoned mines and salt cavern storage in salt domes in places like Louisiana, Mississippi, more commonly, sinkholes occur in urban areas due to water main breaks or sewer collapses when old pipes give way. They can also occur from the overpumping and extraction of groundwater, sinkholes can also form when natural water-drainage patterns are changed and new water-diversion systems are developed. Sinkholes tend to occur in karst landscapes, karst landscapes can have up to thousands of sinkholes within a small area, giving the landscape a pock-marked appearance. These sinkholes drain all the water, so there are only subterranean rivers in these areas, examples of karst landscapes with a plethora of massive sinkholes include Khammouan Mountains and Mamo Plateau. The largest known sinkholes formed in sandstone are Sima Humboldt and Sima Martel in Venezuela, some sinkholes form in thick layers of homogenous limestone. On the contact of limestone and insoluble rock below it, powerful underground rivers may form, in such conditions, the largest known sinkholes of the world have formed, like the 662-metre deep Xiaozhai Tiankeng, giant sótanos in Querétaro and San Luis Potosí states in Mexico and others. The state of Florida in the United States is known for having frequent sinkhole collapses, the Murge area in southern Italy also has numerous sinkholes. Sinkholes can be formed in retention ponds from large amounts of rain, an analysis of a case of sinkhole formation under a retention pond due to a large amount of rain can be seen in a sinkhole collapse study
4.
Floridan aquifer
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It underlies the entire state of Florida and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina. The Floridan aquifer system is one of the worlds most productive aquifers, according to the U. S. Geological Survey, total withdrawals from the Floridan aquifer system in 2000 were ranked 5th highest of all principle aquifers in the Nation at 3,640 million gallons per day. Of the total, 49% was used for irrigation, 33% was used for water supply, 14% was used for industrial purposes. In 1936, geologist Victor Timothy Stringfield first identified the existence of the Floridan Aquifer in peninsular Florida and referred to the carbonate units as the principal artesian formations. In 1944, M. A. Warren of the Georgia Geological Survey described an extension of system in south Georgia. In 1953 and 1966 Stringfield also applied the term principal artesian aquifer to these rocks, with additional information collection, more zones of high and low hydraulic conductivity have been identified. As a result, the name Floridan Aquifer has evolved into Floridan aquifer system, withdrawals from the Floridan aquifer system began in 1887 when the City of Savannah, Georgia, began to supplement surface water withdrawals from the Savannah River with groundwater. Over time, the number of wells increased, as did the finished depths, industrial supply for pulp and paper mills became a large proportion of the water withdrawn starting in the late 1930s. In the 1950s, all municipal, domestic, and industrial supply and about half of agricultural supply in Orlando, groundwater withdrawals from the Floridan aquifer system increased steadily from 630 Mgal/d in 1950 to 3,430 Mgal/d in 1990. Much of the increase was due to increased agricultural demand, the Upper Floridan aquifer contains freshwater over much of its extent, though is brackish and saline south of Lake Okeechobee. The Floridan aquifer system crops out in central and southern Georgia where the limestone, the aquifer system generally dips below land surface to the south where it becomes buried beneath surficial sand deposits and clay. In areas depicted in brown in the image at the right and these regions particularly prone to sinkhole activity due to the proximity of the karstified limestone aquifer to land surface. Some of the fractures/conduits within the aquifer are large enough for divers to swim through. In west-central Florida, north Florida, and along the margin of the system, the limestone crops out. Where low-permeability clays of the upper confining unit are present and substantial, low permeability limestone rocks of Paleocene age form the base of the Floridan aquifer system. The Floridan aquifer system ranges in thickness from less than 100 feet in areas where the rocks pinch out to more than 3,700 feet in southwestern Florida. Where the Floridan aquifer system is at or near surface, clays are thin or absent and dissolution of the limestone is intensified and many springs. Transmissivity of the aquifer in karstified areas such as these is much higher owing to the development of large, Springs form where the water pressure is great enough for the groundwater to flow out on the land surface
5.
Groundwater
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Groundwater is the water present beneath Earths surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or a deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock become completely saturated with water is called the water table. Groundwater is recharged from, and eventually flows to, the naturally, natural discharge often occurs at springs and seeps. Groundwater is also withdrawn for agricultural, municipal, and industrial use by constructing and operating extraction wells. The study of the distribution and movement of groundwater is hydrogeology, Groundwater is hypothesized to provide lubrication that can possibly influence the movement of faults. It is likely that much of Earths subsurface contains some water, Groundwater may not be confined only to Earth. The formation of some of the landforms observed on Mars may have influenced by groundwater. There is also evidence that water may also exist in the subsurface of Jupiters moon Europa. Groundwater is often cheaper, more convenient and less vulnerable to pollution than surface water, therefore, it is commonly used for public water supplies. For example, groundwater provides the largest source of water storage in the United States. Underground reservoirs contain far more water than the capacity of all surface reservoirs and lakes in the US, many municipal water supplies are derived solely from groundwater. Polluted groundwater is less visible, but more difficult to clean up, than pollution in rivers, Groundwater pollution most often results from improper disposal of wastes on land. An aquifer is a layer of substrate that contains and transmits groundwater. When water can flow directly between the surface and the zone of an aquifer, the aquifer is unconfined. The deeper parts of unconfined aquifers are more saturated since gravity causes water to flow downward. The upper level of this layer of an unconfined aquifer is called the water table or phreatic surface. Below the water table, where in general all pore spaces are saturated with water, is the phreatic zone, substrate with low porosity that permits limited transmission of groundwater is known as an aquitard
6.
Water
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Water is a transparent and nearly colorless chemical substance that is the main constituent of Earths streams, lakes, and oceans, and the fluids of most living organisms. Its chemical formula is H2O, meaning that its molecule contains one oxygen, Water strictly refers to the liquid state of that substance, that prevails at standard ambient temperature and pressure, but it often refers also to its solid state or its gaseous state. It also occurs in nature as snow, glaciers, ice packs and icebergs, clouds, fog, dew, aquifers, Water covers 71% of the Earths surface. It is vital for all forms of life. Only 2. 5% of this water is freshwater, and 98. 8% of that water is in ice and groundwater. Less than 0. 3% of all freshwater is in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere, a greater quantity of water is found in the earths interior. Water on Earth moves continually through the cycle of evaporation and transpiration, condensation, precipitation. Evaporation and transpiration contribute to the precipitation over land, large amounts of water are also chemically combined or adsorbed in hydrated minerals. Safe drinking water is essential to humans and other even though it provides no calories or organic nutrients. There is a correlation between access to safe water and gross domestic product per capita. However, some observers have estimated that by 2025 more than half of the population will be facing water-based vulnerability. A report, issued in November 2009, suggests that by 2030, in developing regions of the world. Water plays an important role in the world economy, approximately 70% of the freshwater used by humans goes to agriculture. Fishing in salt and fresh water bodies is a source of food for many parts of the world. Much of long-distance trade of commodities and manufactured products is transported by boats through seas, rivers, lakes, large quantities of water, ice, and steam are used for cooling and heating, in industry and homes. Water is an excellent solvent for a variety of chemical substances, as such it is widely used in industrial processes. Water is also central to many sports and other forms of entertainment, such as swimming, pleasure boating, boat racing, surfing, sport fishing, Water is a liquid at the temperatures and pressures that are most adequate for life. Specifically, at atmospheric pressure of 1 bar, water is a liquid between the temperatures of 273.15 K and 373.15 K
7.
River
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A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water, small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the term river as applied to geographic features. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location, examples are run in parts of the United States, burn in Scotland and northeast England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always, Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Potamology is the study of rivers while limnology is the study of inland waters in general. Extraterrestrial rivers of liquid hydrocarbons have recently found on Titan. Channels may indicate past rivers on other planets, specifically outflow channels on Mars and rivers are theorised to exist on planets, a river begins at a source, follows a path called a course, and ends at a mouth or mouths. The water in a river is confined to a channel. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by flood-waters over-topping the channel. Floodplains may be wide in relation to the size of the river channel. This distinction between river channel and floodplain can be blurred, especially in areas where the floodplain of a river channel can become greatly developed by housing. Rivers can flow down mountains, through valleys or along plains, the term upriver refers to the direction towards the source of the river, i. e. against the direction of flow. Likewise, the term describes the direction towards the mouth of the river. The term left bank refers to the bank in the direction of flow. The river channel typically contains a stream of water, but some rivers flow as several interconnecting streams of water. Extensive braided rivers are now found in only a few regions worldwide and they also occur on peneplains and some of the larger river deltas. Anastamosing rivers are similar to braided rivers and are quite rare
8.
Lake
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A lake is an area of variable size filled with water, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land, apart from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, and therefore are distinct from lagoons, Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams, which are usually flowing. Most lakes are fed and drained by rivers and streams, natural lakes are generally found in mountainous areas, rift zones, and areas with ongoing glaciation. Other lakes are found in endorheic basins or along the courses of mature rivers, in some parts of the world there are many lakes because of chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last Ice Age. All lakes are temporary over geologic time scales, as they will fill in with sediments or spill out of the basin containing them. The word lake comes from Middle English lake, from Old English lacu, from Proto-Germanic *lakō, cognates include Dutch laak, Middle Low German lāke as in, de, Moorlake, de, Wolfslake, de, Butterlake, German Lache, and Icelandic lækur. Also related are the English words leak and leach, none of these definitions completely excludes ponds and all are difficult to measure. For this reason, simple size-based definitions are used to separate ponds. One definition of lake is a body of water of 2 hectares or more in area, however, others have defined lakes as waterbodies of 5 hectares and above, or 8 hectares and above. Charles Elton, one of the founders of ecology, regarded lakes as waterbodies of 40 hectares or more. The term lake is used to describe a feature such as Lake Eyre. In common usage, many bear names ending with the word pond. One textbook illustrates this point with the following, In Newfoundland, for example, almost every lake is called a pond, whereas in Wisconsin, the majority of lakes on Earth are fresh water, and most lie in the Northern Hemisphere at higher latitudes. Canada, with a drainage system has an estimated 31,752 lakes larger than 3 square kilometres and an unknown total number of lakes. Finland has 187,888 lakes 500 square metres or larger, most lakes have at least one natural outflow in the form of a river or stream, which maintain a lakes average level by allowing the drainage of excess water. Some lakes do not have an outflow and lose water solely by evaporation or underground seepage or both. Many lakes are artificial and are constructed for power generation, aesthetic purposes, recreational purposes, industrial use. Globally, lakes are greatly outnumbered by ponds, of an estimated 304 million standing water bodies worldwide, 91% are 1 hectare or less in area
9.
Wetland
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A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants. Wetlands play a number of roles in the environment, principally water purification, flood control, carbon sink, Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica, the largest including the Amazon River basin, the West Siberian Plain, the water found in wetlands can be freshwater, brackish, or saltwater. The main wetland types include swamps, marshes, bogs, and fens, and sub-types include mangrove, carr, pocosin, the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment determined that environmental degradation is more prominent within wetland systems than any other ecosystem on Earth. International conservation efforts are being used in conjunction with the development of rapid assessment tools to people about wetland issues. Constructed wetlands can be used to treat municipal and industrial wastewater as well as stormwater runoff and they may also play a role in water-sensitive urban design. A patch of land that develops pools of water after a storm would not be considered a wetland. Wetlands have unique characteristics, they are distinguished from other water bodies or landforms based on their water level. Specifically, wetlands are characterized as having a table that stands at or near the land surface for a long enough period each year to support aquatic plants. A more concise definition is a community composed of hydric soil, Wetlands have also been described as ecotones, providing a transition between dry land and water bodies. In environmental decision-making, there are subsets of definitions that are agreed upon to make regulatory and policy decisions. A wetland is an ecosystem that arises when inundation by water produces soils dominated by anaerobic processes, There are four main kinds of wetlands – marsh, swamp, bog and fen. Some experts also recognize wet meadows and aquatic ecosystems as additional wetland types, the largest wetlands in the world include the swamp forests of the Amazon and the peatlands of Siberia. Under the Ramsar international wetland conservation treaty, wetlands are defined as follows, Article 2.1, may incorporate riparian and coastal zones adjacent to the wetlands, and islands or bodies of marine water deeper than six metres at low tide lying within the wetlands. Although the general definition given above applies around the world, each county, Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas. This definition has been used in the enforcement of the Clean Water Act, some US states, such as Massachusetts and New York, have separate definitions that may differ from the federal governments. It is not uncommon for a wetland to be dry for long portions of the growing season, the most important factor producing wetlands is flooding
10.
Ocean
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An ocean is a body of saline water that composes much of a planets hydrosphere. On Earth, an ocean is one of the major divisions of the World Ocean. These are, in descending order by area, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, the word sea is often used interchangeably with ocean in American English but, strictly speaking, a sea is a body of saline water partly or fully enclosed by land. The ocean contains 97% of Earths water, and oceanographers have stated that less than 5% of the World Ocean has been explored, the total volume is approximately 1.35 billion cubic kilometers with an average depth of nearly 3,700 meters. As the world ocean is the component of Earths hydrosphere, it is integral to all known life, forms part of the carbon cycle. The world ocean is the habitat of 230,000 known species, but because much of it is unexplored, the origin of Earths oceans remains unknown, oceans are thought to have formed in the Hadean period and may have been the impetus for the emergence of life. Extraterrestrial oceans may be composed of water or other elements and compounds, the only confirmed large stable bodies of extraterrestrial surface liquids are the lakes of Titan, although there is evidence for the existence of oceans elsewhere in the Solar System. Early in their histories, Mars and Venus are theorized to have had large water oceans. The Mars ocean hypothesis suggests that nearly a third of the surface of Mars was once covered by water, compounds such as salts and ammonia dissolved in water lower its freezing point so that water might exist in large quantities in extraterrestrial environments as brine or convecting ice. Unconfirmed oceans are speculated beneath the surface of many planets and natural satellites, notably. The Solar Systems giant planets are thought to have liquid atmospheric layers of yet to be confirmed compositions. Oceans may also exist on exoplanets and exomoons, including surface oceans of water within a circumstellar habitable zone. Ocean planets are a type of planet with a surface completely covered with liquid. The concept of Ōkeanós has an Indo-European connection, Greek Ōkeanós has been compared to the Vedic epithet ā-śáyāna-, predicated of the dragon Vṛtra-, who captured the cows/rivers. Related to this notion, the Okeanos is represented with a dragon-tail on some early Greek vases, though generally described as several separate oceans, these waters comprise one global, interconnected body of salt water sometimes referred to as the World Ocean or global ocean. This concept of a body of water with relatively free interchange among its parts is of fundamental importance to oceanography. The major oceanic divisions – listed below in descending order of area and volume – are defined in part by the continents, various archipelagos, Oceans are fringed by smaller, adjoining bodies of water such as seas, gulfs, bays, bights, and straits. The Mid-Oceanic Ridge of the World are connected and form the Ocean Ridge, the continuous mountain range is 65,000 km long, and the total length of the oceanic ridge system is 80,000 km long
