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: about 2.5% of Earth's water is fresh, and about 30.1% of that is groundwater. About what share of all water is fresh groundwater, by Bo's math?

   • About 75%
   • About 0.76%
   • About 32.6%
   • About 12%
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 98.8%
   • About 31.3%
   • About 38.6%
   • About 1.2%
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
   • A confined, or artesian, aquifer
   • An underground river
   • An unconfined water-table 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.

   • The clay layers pump the water
   • An underground river flows uphill
   • Pressure in the confined aquifer pushes it up
   • The water table is above the land at each spot
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
   • Saturated sand below the water table, with water in its pores
   • Sand with no pore space
   • An underground river under the beach
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?

   • Pumping raises the water table around the well's pipe
   • An underground river feeds the well
   • The aquifer does not respond to pumping
   • Pumping lowers the water table near the well
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 2 feet a year
    • About 180 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?

    • Recharge keeps pace in each area
    • Pumping makes more groundwater
    • Pumping faster than recharge strains a key supply
    • Groundwater is a small supply that few people use for drinking
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
    • Sand, since water moves through it easily
    • Neither, since both are dry
14. 10.

    USGS: a dense granite near the surface may yield little water, while a porous sandstone far below may yield hundreds of gallons a minute. What does this show, by Zee's reading?

    Use the picture in question 9.

    • Porosity and permeability matter more than depth
    • Sandstone holds zero water
    • Deeper rock yields more water in each case, whatever its type
    • Granite is the top aquifer rock