Portal:Water
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Water (from the Old English word wæter) is a tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless (it has a slight hint of light blue) liquid in its pure form that is essential to all known forms of life and is known also as the most universal solvent. Water is an abundant substance on Earth. It exists in many places and forms. It appears mostly in the oceans and polar ice caps, but also as clouds, precipitation, rivers, aquifers and sea ice. On the planet, water is continuously moving through the cycle involving evaporation, precipitation, and runoff to the sea.
The water cycle—technically known as the hydrologic cycle—is the circulation of water within the earth's hydrosphere, involving changes in the physical state of water between liquid, solid, and gas phases. The hydrologic cycle refers to the continuous exchange of water between atmosphere, land, surface and subsurface waters, and organisms. In addition to storage in various compartments (the ocean is one such "compartment"), the multiple cycles that make up the earth's water cycle involve five main physical actions: evaporation, precipitation, infiltration, runoff, and subsurface flow:
...that "water bears" are small, segmented animals that can survive in a dehydrated state for nearly 10 years?
...that Frazil ice gives the ocean's surface a slightly oily appearance?
...that Water memory is a homeopathic concept, which holds that water is capable of containing "memory" of particles dissolved in it?
- UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme photo library
- FAO Media Archive searchable by region and keyword
- The UK Collection of Freshwater Sites
- HyDis - Hydrologic Data and Information System GIS maps
- Water Science Picture Gallery from U.S. Geological Survey
- UNESCO Water Portal and weekly newsletter
- Global Water News Watch, from SAHRA in Arizona USA
- U.S. Water Monitor - a portal to federal water information
- Watershed News from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- USDA Soil Conservation Service website news
- [http://www.tanksystems.com/NewsIndex.html |Water information from the AWWA, FDA & NSF Sources
- The 2005 Preliminary Report of the Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable (SWRR) is now available.
Portal:Water/Things you can do
- Aquatic organisms
- Aqueducts
- Bathing
- Drinking water
- Forms of water
- Hydrography
- Hydrology
- Irrigation
- Plumbing
- Reservoirs
- Water chemistry
- Water management authorities
- Water sports
- Watersheds
See Category:Water for complete list.
- WikiProject Rivers is a WikiProject which aims primarily to describe the Earth's rivers in a consistent and complete fashion. The parent of this WikiProject is the WikiProject Geography.
- WikiProject Water purification provides information on water purification.
Dictionary definitions from Wiktionary
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews
Learning resources from Wikiversity
