Bowen, R: Surface Water -

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Résumé :
Next to air, water is the most essential of human requirements. The hydrosphere-the waters of the Earth, its oceans, rivers and lakes-is vital, constituting a feature unique in the solar system and one responsible for physical and climatic phenomena characteristic of the planet. Water moves through the hydrologic cycle and runs the heat engine of the Earth, approximately 97% of it occurring in the oceans. These contain vast natural resources including abundant plant and animal life and they assist in cleansing the atmosphere by becoming the final repository of air and land pollutants of which many are man-made. Unfortunately their ability to do this is diminishing because of rising pollution by toxicants such as DDT, nuclear by-products such as strontium-90 and oil spills. The oceans contain huge quantities of various substances mostly originating from the atmosphere, biological activity, river transport after rock weathering, groundwater, spreading zones along mid-oceanic ridges and crustal out-gassing. After hydrogen and oxygen, the commonest elements in them are Cl, Na, Mg, S, K, Ca, Br, C and B. The atmosphere and the oceans together cooperate in an energy cycle important in controlling and equalising the Earth's surface temperature.

Sommaire:
1. The Hydrologic Cycle.- 1.1. Some Preliminary Observations on Water.- 1.2. Hydrology.- 1.3. The Hydrologic Cycle.- 1.4. Some Basic Principles of Hydrology.- 1.5. Terrain Hydrology.- 1.5.1. Arid and semi-arid terrains.- 1.5.2. Limestone terrains.- 1.5.3. Coastal terrains.- 1.6. Change in the Hydrologic Cycle.- 1.7. Wastage in the Hydrologic Cycle.- 1.8. The International Hydrologie Decade.- 1.9. The United Nations International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade.- 1.10. Drought, a Disruption in the Hydrologic Cycle.- 1.11. Isotopes in the Hydrologic Cycle.- 1.12. The Global Water Balance.- 2. The Atmosphere.- 2.1. Energy in the Atmosphere.- 2.2. Atmospheric Moisture.- 2.2.1 Stable isotopes.- 2.2.2. Unstable isotopes.- 2.3. Environmental Isotopes in Hydrometeorology.- 2.4. Circulation in the Atmosphere.- 2.5. Measurement of Precipitation.- 2.6. Measurement of Evaporation.- 2.7. Gauging of Snow.- 2.8. Atmospheric Water in Soil Erosion.- 2.9. Wind and Pressure.- 2.10. The Earth and its Atmosphere.- 3. Rivers.- 3.1. Rates of Flow and Discharge of Rivers.- 3.1.1. Constant rate injection method.- 3.1.2. Integration method.- 3.2. The Basin Hydrologic Cycle.- 3.3. Basin Morphometry.- 3.4. River Load.- 3.5. River Erosion Studies.- 3.6. The Forms of Channels.- 3.7. Flood Hazards.- 3.8. Water Movement through Soil.- 4. Lakes and other Surface Water Manifestations.- 4.1. General Characteristics of Lakes.- 4.1.1. Tectonic Lakes.- 4.1.2. Glacial Lakes.- 4.1.3. Volcanic Lakes.- 4.2. Dynamics of Lakes and Reservoirs.- 4.3. Leakages from Lakes and Reservoirs.- 4.4. 18O and D Concentrations with Reference to the Water Balance of Lakes.- 4.5. The Total Lake Water Resources of the Earth.- 4.6. Springs.- 4.7. Snow Packs and Glaciers.- 5. The Oceans.- 5.1. Seas and Oceans.- 5.2. Structure of Oceanic Basins.- 5.2.1. Seismic refraction.- 5.2.2. Gravity measurements.- 5.3. Oceanic Circulation.- 5.4. Other Motions in the Oceans.- 5.4.1. Tides.- 5.4.2. Waves.- 5.5. Coastlines.- 5.6. The Deposits of the Deep Oceans.- 5.7. The History of the Deep Oceans.- 5.8. The Chemistry and Biology of the Seas.- Author Index.- Places Index.