Groundwater and fresh water supplies

Grade 9 Science Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Table, Where is Earth's water? (USGS), with columns Store, Percent of total water, Percent of freshwater: oceans, seas and bays, 96.54%, not fresh; ice caps, glaciers and permanent snow, 1.74%, 68.7%; fresh groundwater, 0.76%, 30.1%; fresh lakes, 0.007%, 0.26%; rivers, 0.0002%, 0.006%.

2. 1.

   USGS: rivers and lakes hold about 22,300 cubic miles of fresh water, out of about 332.5 million cubic miles of all water. About what percent is that, by Esme's math?

   • About 6.7%
   • About 0.0067%, or 1/150 of 1%
   • About 15%
   • About 0.67%
3. 2.

   USGS: about 68.7% of fresh water is ice and about 30.1% is groundwater. About what share is left for everything else, by Jun's math?

   • About 38.6%
   • About 98.8%
   • About 1.2%
   • About 31.3%
5. 3.

   Groundwater trapped between layers of clay or shale is under pressure (USGS). What kind of aquifer is this, by Kira's reading?

   • A dry unsaturated zone
   • An unconfined water-table aquifer
   • An underground river
   • A confined, or artesian, aquifer
6. 4.

   Why can water rise up an artesian well without a pump, by Luz's reading (USGS)?

   Use the picture in question 3.

   • An underground river flows uphill
   • The clay layers pump the water
   • The water table is above the land at each spot
   • Pressure in the confined aquifer pushes it up
7. 5.

   USGS: a hole dug at the beach fills with water to about the level of the ocean. What does the hole show, by Milo's reading?

   • Water rising from deep in the mantle
   • An underground river under the beach
   • Saturated sand below the water table, with water in its pores
   • Sand with no pore space
9. 6.

   USGS: near a pumping well, the water table dips into a cone of depression. What does the cone show, by Noah's reading?

   • An underground river feeds the well
   • Pumping lowers the water table near the well
   • Pumping raises the water table around the well's pipe
   • The aquifer does not respond to pumping
10. 7.

    USGS: in parts of the High Plains aquifer, levels fell more than 100 feet. If an example fall of 120 feet took 60 years, what is the average rate, by Pia's math?

    Use the picture in question 6.

    • About 7,200 feet a year
    • About 0.5 feet a year
    • About 180 feet a year
    • About 2 feet a year
11. 8.

    Recharge in, pumping out. USGS: groundwater is drinking water for about half the US population and nearly all of its rural population. What do the decline data suggest, by Ren's reading?

    • Pumping faster than recharge strains a key supply
    • Groundwater is a small supply that few people use for drinking
    • Recharge keeps pace in each area
    • Pumping makes more groundwater
13. 9.

    Model data: sand has 30% open space and lets water through fast; clay has 45% but lets it through very slowly. Which makes the better aquifer, by Tala's reading?

    • Clay, since it holds more water
    • Clay, since slow flow keeps water near the well
    • Neither, since both are dry
    • Sand, since water moves through it easily
14. 10.

    USGS: groundwater may move meters a day or centimeters a century. How many times faster is 3 m a day than 3 cm a century, by Ari's math?

    Use the picture in question 9.

    • About 36,500 times
    • About 100 times
    • About 365 times
    • About 3.7 million times