Jump to content

Portal:Water

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Water Portal

The multiple arches of the Pont du Gard in Roman Gaul (modern-day southern France). The upper tier encloses an aqueduct that carried water to Nimes in Roman times; its lower tier was expanded in the 1740s to carry a wide road across the river.
The multiple arches of the Pont du Gard in Roman Gaul (modern-day southern France). The upper tier encloses an aqueduct that carried water to Nimes in Roman times; its lower tier was expanded in the 1740s to carry a wide road across the river.

Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula H2O. It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a solvent). It is vital for all known forms of life, despite not providing food energy or organic micronutrients. Its chemical formula, H2O, indicates that each of its molecules contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms, connected by covalent bonds. The hydrogen atoms are attached to the oxygen atom at an angle of 104.45°. In liquid form, H2O is also called "water" at standard temperature and pressure.

Because Earth's environment is relatively close to water's triple point, water exists on Earth as a solid, a liquid, and a gas. It forms precipitation in the form of rain and aerosols in the form of fog. Clouds consist of suspended droplets of water and ice, its solid state. When finely divided, crystalline ice may precipitate in the form of snow. The gaseous state of water is steam or water vapor.

Water covers about 71% of the Earth's surface, with seas and oceans making up most of the water volume (about 96.5%). Small portions of water occur as groundwater (1.7%), in the glaciers and the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland (1.7%), and in the air as vapor, clouds (consisting of ice and liquid water suspended in air), and precipitation (0.001%). Water moves continually through the water cycle of evaporation, transpiration (evapotranspiration), condensation, precipitation, and runoff, usually reaching the sea. (Full article...)

Atlantic Ocean near the Faroe Islands

A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the Ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order sections of the oceanic sea (e.g. the Mediterranean Sea), or certain large, nearly landlocked bodies of water.

The salinity of water bodies varies widely, being lower near the surface and the mouths of large rivers and higher in the depths of the ocean; however, the relative proportions of dissolved salts vary little across the oceans. The most abundant solid dissolved in seawater is sodium chloride. The water also contains salts of magnesium, calcium, potassium, and mercury, amongst many other elements, some in minute concentrations. A wide variety of organisms, including bacteria, protists, algae, plants, fungi, and animals live in the seas, which offers a wide range of marine habitats and ecosystems, ranging vertically from the sunlit surface and shoreline to the great depths and pressures of the cold, dark abyssal zone, and in latitude from the cold waters under polar ice caps to the warm waters of coral reefs in tropical regions. Many of the major groups of organisms evolved in the sea and life may have started there. (Full article...)

Did you know (auto-generated) - load different entries

More did you know - show different entries

DYK Question Mark
DYK Question Mark
  • ...that during the 1878 flood in Miskolc, Hungary, the water level rose 50 cm per minute and in some parts of the city water was 4 to 5 m high?

Water News

Note: this section was updated in February 2020

Selected picture

Categories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

Topics

General images

The following are images from various water-related articles on Wikipedia.

Wikiprojects

  • WikiProject Lakes describes the Earth's lakes. The project aims to consolidate and unify pages relating to lakes around the world.

Things you can do


Here are some tasks awaiting attention:
  • Stubs : Expand water stubs
  • Other :
    • Invite water experts to contribute their information.
    • Add your expert knowledge for your local river at WikiProject Rivers.
    • Help rotate/refresh the three items in the "Did you know?" box.
    • Expand articles on local lakes at WikiProject Lakes
    • Write or improve an article on a country whose water sector you know well at Category:Water supply and sanitation by country

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

More portals

Purge server cache