Water Basins in Mexico and the World

Water (Hydrological) Cycle

The continuous cycle of water between the sea, land and atmosphere.

There are five main processes in the hydrological cycle, these are:
Condensation - Water vapour changes back into water (cloud formation)
Evaporation - The transfer of water from the sea and the land to the air as water vapour
Precipitation - Any form of moisture falling from the atmosphere e.g. sleet, hail, snow, rain
Transpiration - Transfer of water from vegetation to the air as water vapour
Surface run-off - Water flowing over the surface of the earth, e.g. river

In the hydrological cycle water can be stored as snow and ice, in lakes, as ground water and in oceans and seas.

Rivers are a very important part of the natural components of the geographical space, They are leaking of water coming from high relief zones; they come from rain and because of gravity they go down trying to get to the sea level or  stay in a lake or basin, they can also can be filtered into the ground or evaporate on their way. The action of the water going down also erosions the land and may create streams nest to the main flow of water.

Basins

A basin is a depression, or dip, in the Earth’s surface. Basins are shaped like bowls, with sides higher than the bottom. They can be oval or circular in shape, similar to a sink or tub you might have in your own bathroom. Some are filled with water. Others are empty.

Basins are formed by forces above the ground (like erosion) or below the ground (like earthquakes). They can be created over thousands of years or almost overnight.

The major types of basins are river drainage basins, structural basins, and ocean basins.

River Drainage Basins

A river drainage basin is an area drained by a river and all of its tributaries. A river basin is made up of many different watersheds.

Features of a drainage basin:
Water shed - An area of high land which forms the edge of a river basin
Tributary - A small river flowing into a large river
Confluence - The point where two rivers meet
The source - Where a river starts
Mouth - Where a river flows into (lake or sea)

The diagram below shows these features.

A watershed is a small version of a river basin. Every stream and tributary has its own watershed, which drains to a larger stream or wetland. These streams, ponds, wetlands, and lakes are part of a river basin.

Every river is part of a network of watersheds that make up a river system’s entire drainage basin. All the water in the drainage basin flows downhill toward bigger rivers. The Pease River, in northern Texas, is part of the Arkansas-Red-White watershed. It is a tributary of the Red River. The Red River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Amazon Basin, in northern South America, is the largest in the world. The Amazon River and all of its tributaries drain an area more than 7 million square kilometers (about 3 million square miles).

Structural Basins

Structural basins are formed by tectonic activity. Tectonic activity is the movement of large pieces of the Earth’s crust, called tectonic plates. Tectonic activity is responsible for such phenomena as earthquakes and volcanoes. The natural processes of weathering and erosion also contribute to forming structural basins.

Structural basins form as tectonic plates shift. Rocks and other material on the floor of the basin are forced downward, while material on the sides of the basin are pushed up. This process happens over thousands of years. If a basin is shaped like a bowl, a structural basin is shaped like a series of smaller bowls, stacked inside each other. Structural basins are usually found in dry regions.

Some structural basins are known as endorheic basins. Endorheic basins have internal drainage systems. This means they don’t have enough water to drain to a stream, lake, or ocean. The water that trickles into these types of basins evaporates or seeps into the ground.

When enough water collects in an endorheic basin, it can form a very salty lake, such as the Dead Sea, between Israel and Jordan. While water evaporates into the atmosphere, minerals remain. The remaining water becomes even saltier. The Dead Sea is the saltiest natural body of water on Earth. Its shore, about 400 meters (1,300 feet) below sea level, is Earth’s lowest dry point.

A lake basin is another type of structural basin. Lake basins often form in valleys blocked by rocks or other debris left by a landslide, lava flow, or glacier. The debris acts as a dam, trapping water and forming a lake. Lake basins may also be carved out by glaciers—huge masses of ice—as they move down valleys or across the land. When the glaciers move, the basins they create remain.


Sedimentary basins are a type of structural basin that aren’t shaped like typical basins, sometimes forming long troughs. Sedimentary basins have been filled with layers of rock and organic material over millions of years. Material that fills up the basin is called sediment fill.

Sedimentary basins are key sources of petroleum and other fossil fuels. Millions of years ago, tiny sea creatures called diatoms lived and died in ocean basins. Eventually, these ancient oceans dried up, leaving dry basins. The remains of the diatoms were at the bottom of these basins. The remains were crushed under billions of tons of sediment fill, over millions of years. In the right conditions, the pressure of the sediment fill turns the diatom remains into petroleum.

Ocean Basins

Ocean basins are the largest depressions on Earth. Edges of the continents, called continental shelves, form the sides of ocean basins.

There are five major ocean basins, coordinating with the major oceans of the world: the Pacific basin, the Atlantic basin, the Indian basin, the Arctic basin, and the Southern basin. Many smaller basins are often considered oceanic basins, such as the North Aleutian Basin, between the Pacific and Arctic Oceans.

Tectonic activity constantly changes ocean basins. Seafloor spreading and subduction are the most important types of tectonic activity that shape ocean basins.

Seafloor spreading happens along the boundaries of tectonic plates that are moving apart from each other. These areas are called mid-ocean ridges. New seafloor is created at the bottom, or rift, of a mid-ocean ridge. Ocean basins that have mid-ocean ridges are expanding. The Atlantic basin, for instance, is expanding because of seafloor spreading.

Subduction happens along the boundaries of tectonic plates that are crashing into each other. In these subduction zones, the heavier plate moves underneath, or subducts, the lighter one. Ocean basins that experience subduction, such as the Pacific basin, are shrinking.

Even though ocean basins make up more than 70 percent of the total land on Earth, scientists know relatively little about them. Some oceanographers (and some astronomers!) say that we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the surface of the ocean floor.

The following is a list of the major ocean basins:

About 48.7% of the world's land drains to the Atlantic Ocean. In North America, surface water drains to the Atlantic via the Saint Lawrence River and Great Lakes basins, the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, the Canadian Maritimes, and most of Newfoundland and Labrador. Nearly all of South America east of the Andes also drains to the Atlantic, as does most of Western and Central Europe and the greatest portion of western Sub-Saharan Africa. The three major mediterranean seas of the world also flow to the Atlantic:

The American Mediterranean Sea (the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico) basin includes most of the U.S. interior between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains, a small part of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, eastern Central America, the islands of the Caribbean and the Gulf, and a small part of northern South America.

The European Mediterranean Sea basin includes much of North Africa, east-central Africa (through the Nile River), Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, Turkey, and the coastal areas of Israel, Lebanon, and Syria.

The Arctic Ocean drains most of Western and Northern Canada east of the Continental Divide, northern Alaska and parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Montana in the United States, the north shore of the Scandinavian peninsula in Europe, and much of central and northern Russia.

Just over 13% of the land in the world drains to the Pacific Ocean. Its basin includes much of China, southeastern Russia, Japan, the Korean Peninsula, most of Indonesia and Malaysia, the Philippines, all of the Pacific Islands, the northeast coast of Australia, and Canada and the United States west of the Continental Divide (including most of Alaska), as well as western Central America and South America west of the Andes.

The Indian Ocean's drainage basin also comprises about 13% of Earth's land. It drains the eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, Burma, and most of Australia.

The Southern Ocean drains Antarctica. Antarctica comprises approximately eight percent of the Earth's land.

Largest river basins

The five largest river basins (by area), from largest to smallest, are the Amazon basin, the River Plate basin, the Congo basin, the Nile basin, and the Mississippi basin. The three rivers that drain the most water, from most to least, are the Amazon, Ganges, and Congo Rivers.

 

 



Importance of catching and availability of water in Mexico and the World.

The study and management of basins is important because in them, ecosystems coexist, and taking care of them will protect the natural diversity  of our planet. Basins are a main part of the water(Hydric) cycle and also important for the catching and availability of water that human beings and biosphere needs. Water is a RENEWABLE resource.

Basins have three functions:

 

Hydrologic

·         Catching water from rain, snow and hail that form the leaking of rivers, springs and streams

·         Catching of water in its different forms.

 

Ecologic

·         Provide different habitats for the richness of flora and fauna, biologic elements of an ecosystem.

·         Preserve biodiversity.

·         Maintain the diversity of soil because of the difference in sediments and nutrients carried by the currents, because soil is an important factor for the vegetation distribution.

 

Socio-Economic

·         Provide natural resources for the development of productive activities that sustain populations, for example agriculture, livestock, fishing, electricity generation, drinking water industry and mining.

 

Distribution of water in the world and Mexico depends in the location and relief as well as location in relation to the great climate zones, even when there are zones that have big amounts of rain but not good catching systems or zones with few amount of rain and good catching systems. There are other zones with a big waste and ineffective use because of the low education level and style of life.

 

Governments and society need to create strategies to preserve and use water in a right way or we may have severe environmental problems.