Question

Directions: Choose one box in Row 1 to complete. Then choose one box in Row 2 to complete. Then complete the final task.
Option 1 Option 2 Option 3
Row 1 The Greenland Ice Sheet stores
water in a frozen reservoir. Ask
three (3) scientific questions
scientists might need to determine
how much water is stored in the ice
sheet and how much of the world’s
freshwater that represents.
The Okefenokee Swamp is a large
wetland system in southern
Georgia. It has a large amount of
biodiversity that relies on the water
in the ecosystem. Ask three (3)
scientific questions that would
determine what type of water, how
much water, and/or how the amount
of water compares to other water
on Earth.
When viewing a photo of Earth from
space, most of what you notice is
blue. That blue is our oceans. Ask
three (3) scientific questions to
determine how much water is in our
oceans and how we can use that
water.
Row 2 Ground water is vitally important to
much of life on Earth. Construct an
explanation using information from
class about how much ground
water there is on Earth and how the
ground water is replenished.

Answer 1

Chosen boxes:
- Row 1: Option 1 (Greenland Ice Sheet)
- Row 2: Ground water explanation

Row 1 — Three scientific questions about how much water the Greenland Ice Sheet stores and what fraction of the world’s freshwater that represents
1. What is the three‑dimensional distribution of ice thickness across the Greenland Ice Sheet (including firn layers), and what is the total ice volume when integrated over that thickness map?
2. What is the appropriate ice-to-water conversion (accounting for firn density, air content, and compaction) so the measured ice volume can be converted reliably to an equivalent volume of liquid freshwater?
3. Using the converted freshwater volume, how does that volume compare to the global freshwater inventory (and what are the uncertainties) — i.e., what percentage of Earth’s freshwater is contained in Greenland now, and how would that fraction change under different melt scenarios?

Row 2 — Explanation: How much groundwater there is on Earth and how groundwater is replenished
- How much groundwater there is (summary with common estimates):
- Earth’s total water is about 1.386 × 10^9 km^3. Only a small fraction of that is freshwater (commonly cited ~35.0 × 10^6 km^3).
- Groundwater (including soil moisture and some subsurface ice) makes up roughly 30% of that freshwater — typically cited around 10.5 × 10^6 km^3. In other words, groundwater is one of the largest accessible freshwater stores after ice caps and glaciers.
- Although abundant compared with surface water, groundwater still represents a limited and unevenly distributed resource for human use; many regions rely heavily on groundwater for drinking water and irrigation.

- How groundwater is replenished (the processes):
1. Recharge by precipitation and infiltration: Rain and snow that fall on land can infiltrate the soil. If the ground is permeable and evapotranspiration is not too high, water percolates downward past the root zone into the saturated zone, recharging aquifers.
2. Surface-water infiltration and river/stream leakage: Rivers, lakes, and wetlands can lose water to the subsurface where the water table is lower; this contributes to local aquifer recharge.
3. Artificial recharge: Human activities (managed aquifer recharge, infiltration basins, injection wells) can add water intentionally to aquifers.
4. Lateral flow and confined-aquifer leakage: Water can move from areas of high hydraulic head to low head or seep through confining layers via fractures and faults, contributing to recharge of deeper or adjacent aquifers.

- Important controls and timescales:
- Recharge rates depend on precipitation amount and seasonality, soil and rock permeability (porosity and hydraulic conductivity), topography, vegetation and land use, and climate (temperature, evaporative demand).
- Residence times vary widely: shallow unconfined aquifers may recharge on timescales of years to decades; deep confined or fractured-rock aquifers can have residence times of centuries to millennia (so-called “fossil” groundwater) and are effectively nonrenewable on human timescales.
- Over‑pumping faster than recharge lowers the water table, reduces baseflow to streams, can cause land subsidence, and can draw in poor-quality water (saline intrusion in coastal aquifers).

- Practical implication:
- Sustainable use requires matching extraction to the renewable recharge rate (or intentionally using nonrenewable groundwater only with awareness of long-term consequences), protecting recharge areas from contamination, and using managed recharge where feasible to restore depleted aquifers.

If you want, I can:
- Turn the Greenland questions into measurable hypotheses and suggest instruments/methods (satellite altimetry, radar/laser, gravimetry, ice-penetrating radar, firn cores) and measurement plans, or
- Provide local groundwater numbers or an example calculation of recharge vs. extraction for a specific region.