GEOL 102 Problems Topic 6, Spring 2012

Practical exercises 1. For a specific location, given that: soil moisture = 60 mm, precipitation = 190 mm, potential evapotranspiration (PET) = 80 mm, surface runoff = 60 mm. a. Calculate the evapotranspiration. Is it actual or potential? Explain your answer. b. Calculate the maximum amount of water (in terms of mm) expected to infiltrate to the underground. c. Recalculate infiltration if the surface runoff were 40 mm. What can you say about the relationship between infiltration and surface runoff? 2. Air at sea level with a temperature of 30oC must rise over a 2300m mountain before descending into a mountain basin with an elevation of 300m. The rising air will achieve saturation by adiabatic cooling when the temperature reaches 10oC. The saturated adiabatic lapse rate is 0.6oC/100m. a. What is the initial dew point temperature at sea level? b. At what altitude is the dew point temperature reached? c. Calculate the temperature at the mountain summit? d. What is the air temperature in the basin on the leeside of the mountain?