The document discusses surface water and river systems. It defines key terms like watershed, which is the land drained by a stream, and tributary, which are streams that join the main river. It also describes the major components of a river system, including the source where the river begins, usually in highlands, the mouth where the river ends in the sea, and the drainage basin that is drained by the river and its tributaries.

1. Lesson 2
Surface Water

2. Review: Identify the missing steps of the Water Cycle

4. Freshwater
• The source of freshwater is mostly from precipitation
• Most precipitation returns to the atmosphere through
evaporation
• The remaining either
• Becomes runoff
• Soaks into the ground to become groundwater
• If the runoff collects into sheets in a small body of moving
water it is a stream

5. Surface Water
•The land that is drained by a stream is
called a watershed.
•Smaller watersheds run into larger
rivers to form their watersheds.

6. • The approximate watersheds of the Columbia River, the
Colorado River, and the Mississippi River.

8. What is a river?
• A river is a natural watercourse,
• usually freshwater, flowing
• towards the sea.
• Without the hydrological cycle,
• rivers cannot be formed.

9. Is this a river?

10. •Adjacent watersheds are separated by a divide.
•Rainfall on one side if the divide runs into
one watershed and rainfall on the other
side of the divide runs into the adjacent
watershed.
•The Continental Divide (Great
Divide)separates watersheds that drain into
opposite sides of the continent

11. A small body of standing water is called a pond
A larger body of standing water is called a lake.
A standing body of water is called a reservoir if it is
used for:
Water storage
Flood control
The generation of electricity

12. Water flows from highlands to lowlands due to the pull of
gravity.
River System (Guess the answers)
River source: The place at which the river begins.
Usually found in mountainous areas or highland.
Tributary: Streams and rivers that join the
main river
River mouth: The
place at which a
river ends into the
sea

13. Water flows from highlands to lowlands due to the pull of
gravity.
River System (Guess the answers)
River source: The place at which the river begins.
Usually found in mountainous areas or highland.
Tributary: Streams and rivers that join the
main river
River mouth: The
place at which a
river ends into the
sea

14. RIVER SYSTEM
• Source – the
starting point of a
river
• Mouth – the ending
point of a river
• Drainage Basin –
The area drained by
a river and its
tributaries

15. RIVER SYSTEM
•Confluence – the
point at which a
tributary joins the
main river
• Watershed – The
boundary formed
by the edges of the
drainage basin