All About Water

What Is a Water Tower: An Introduction

We see water towers all of the time, yet many of us are unsure what exactly they do. Just what is a water tower, anyway? Put succinctly, a water tower is an elevated water storage system that we use to pressurize and distribute our water.

What Is a Water Tower: The Purpose of Water Towers

Domestic water supplies must be pressurized if they are to be considered safe. Insufficiently pressurized water can cause a slew of problems. Insufficiently pressurized water may not be able to reach the upper floors of buildings, or to spray forcefully enough. More dangerously, insufficiently pressurized water that flows over hilly areas may become negatively charge and suck in groundwater. This untreated groundwater is likely contaminated with microorganisms and harmful chemicals, and would pollute drinking water supplies. Water towers also help us by acting as a reservoir during peak water, or water shortages.

What Is a Water Tower: How Water Towers are Built

Water towers vary greatly in appearance and material. These pressurizing, elevated water storage systems have to be at least twenty feet tall. On average, water towers are about 130 feet tall. Water towers must be rounded, but can come in many shapes, like spherical and cylindrical. We can make water towers out of many different materials, like steel and concrete. However, we always line water towers’ interiors to protect water from absorbing these construction materials. Because water towers depend on hydrostatic pressure, they function even during power outages. Refilling the water tower, however, does require electricity. The water tower’s water supplies fall during peak hours, and then are refilled at night.

What Is a Water Tower: The History of the Water Tower

The water tower became popular during the Industrial Revolution, as growing communities recognized their need to pressurize and distribute water. Often these water towers were elaborately decorated—they were painted, or surrounded by brickwork or trellises. Many of these water towers are now perceived as architectural landmarks, and are therefore preserved for historical posterity. Today, many water towers form the highest point in several small towns, and they are therefore used as community rallying points. They are outfitted with antennae or warning sirens, and are sometimes used to advertise local happenings. In recent years, however, many people are switching away from water towers. Instead, they are constructing pumps on top of pipes to increase water pressure. While these pumps are more straightforward than water towers, they are potentially more dangerous. If the pumps fail, then the decreased water pressure might suck contaminated water into the domestic water supplies. What is a water tower? A safe device for storing and pressurizing water that is now being supplanted by less safe alternatives.

All About Bubbles

A bubble is a globule of one thermodynamic phase inside of another, like a gas in a liquid. We commonly find bubbles in boiling water, carbonated sodas, sea foam, and gas pockets in glass. Learning about bubbles can teach us about many concepts, like shape, transparency, mirrored surfaces, colors, and flexibility.

About Bubbles: How Bubbles Form

Bubbles are produced by the scientific process of nucleation. Nucleation occurs when a small pocket of one thermodynamic phase forms inside of another. In bubbles, the thermodynamic phase of a gas forms inside of the thermodynamic phase of a liquid. However, pure water is not stable enough to produce a lingering bubble. We use soap to stabilize bubbles, allowing them to linger for longer. Many incorrectly believe that soap increases water’s surface tension. This is not true. In fact, soap decreases water’s surface tension. Soap does not strengthen bubbles, it merely stabilizes them.

About Bubbles: How We Use Bubbles

We use bubbles in many ways, both practical and fun. We use bubbles in ultrasounds to help us better see babies. We use bubbles to better understand mathematical concepts, like minimal surface area. Performance artists use bubbles for their aesthetic properties. We also use bubbles as toys. Children have been playing with bubbles since the 1600s. Toy stores sell about two hundred million bottles of bubble mixture every year.

About Bubbles: Why Bubbles Pop

When disturbed, bubbles pulsate, or rapidly oscillate in size. These oscillations destabilize bubbles, leading them to eventually tear apart. The popping of bubbles below produces most of the liquid sounds that we hear.

About Bubbles: Make Your Own Bubbles

If you would like to learn more about bubbles, you can do so by observing them yourself. Enjoy educational, fun homemade bubbles by mixing your own bubble solution. Simply combine ½ a cup of dishwashing liquid, two teaspoons of sugar, and two cups of water to make bubbles whenever you want.

What is an isolation tank? You may have heard people talking about isolation tanks recently, but you may not know what they are yourself. An isolation tank is a lightless, soundproof tank in which a person floats in skin temperature salt water. Isolation tanks employ sensory deprivation as a tool for meditation and relaxation. Some consider isolation tanks a form of alternative medicine. Isolation tanks go by many names, such as float tanks, sensory deprivation tanks, and floatation baths.

What Is an Isolation Tank: Tank Design and Use

Isolation tanks are designed to cut off all stimuli. The water in isolation tanks is filled with Epsom salt, which increases the water’s salinity and density, allowing users to float more easily with their faces above the water. Because the users’ ears float below the water, hearing is reduced. Other users use ear-plugs to further cut off sound. Users float with their arms by their sides, reducing skin sensation. To reduce smell, the water is treated as little as possible. The water temperature is carefully matched with the air temperature, cutting down one’s feeling of having a body boundary. In short, the isolation tank is designed to eliminate as many stimuli as possible.

What Is an Isolation Tank: How to Use an Isolation Tank

People usually use the isolation tank while naked. While users can technically wear swimsuits, this is discouraged because the elastic on swimsuits can uncomfortably compress skin, producing extraneous negative stimuli. Because the water should be altered by external forces as little as possible, users must bathe before entering the tank. After their isolation tank session, users must bathe again to cleanse their skin of the Epsom salt. For this reason, a shower is usually installed in the same room as the tank. This allows the user can switch directly from the shower to the tank and the tank to the shower.

What Is an Isolation Tank: The History of the Isolation Tank

The isolation tank was created in 1954 by medical practitioner John C. Lilly. John C. Lilly, a trained psychoanalyst, wanted to experiment with sensory deprivation. Several theories about sensory deprivation were circulating in Lilly’s. These theories held that the brain could go to sleep if all stimuli were cut off to it. Lilly decided to test these theories with the isolation tank, an experimental environment that would isolate the individual from external stimulations. He used this experimental environment to study awareness and consciousness. Experimenters at other universities continue his studies today. What is an isolation tank? A relaxation technique whose benefits are still being researched today.

A body of water (or “water body”) is a pool of water that covers the Earth. The term “body of water” usually refers to large pools of water like seas, lakes and oceans, but it can also refer to smaller pools, like ponds, tide pools, and even puddles.

Various Bodies of Water

There are many, many different types of bodies of water. Some bodies of water occur naturally. Others, like reservoirs and harbors, are man-made. Although water formations that move around, like rivers and streams, aren’t always considered bodies of water, there is no other English term for moving bodies of water, so they are typically grouped with other bodies of water. Some bodies of water are less well-known and culturally and geographically limited in scope. For instance, the Spanish have named the “arroyo,” a creek that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain or a rainy season. The Australians have named the “billabong,” a pool of water that forms when a river changes its course. Some major bodies of water include oceans, seas, and rivers.

Major Bodies of Water: Oceans

The largest bodies of water are oceans, enormous pools of saltwater. Oceans are continuous bodies of water that divide into smaller seas. Although interconnected, we typically describe oceans as separate. Earth’s oceans run about two miles deep. They are home to about 230,000 known marine species, and perhaps ten times that number of unknown marine species. Although interconnected into one global saltwater body that oceanographers sometimes call the “World Ocean,” Earth’s oceans are usually described as five separate bodies of water. This allows us to specify which part of the World Ocean we’re talking about. These five oceans are the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean.

Major Bodies of Water: Seas

Seas are large bodies of water that are usually connected with oceans. The term “sea” is sometimes incorrectly used as a synonym for the term “ocean.” However, oceanographers see seas and oceans as two different kinds of bodies of water. Seas are smaller saltwater bodies that are usually interconnected with oceans, but can sometimes be disconnected from oceans. For instance, the Caspian Sea is in fact a saltwater lake.

Major Bodies of Water: Rivers

Rivers are moving, usually freshwater bodies of water. They typically flow into other bodies of water, like oceans, seas, lakes, and other rivers. However, they can sometimes flow into the ground or dry up before reaching other bodies of water.

Storm surge is the coastal flooding produced by storms like tropical cyclones. Storm surge is caused by high winds that push on the ocean’s surface. These winds pile water up higher than ordinary sea levels, producing flooding.

What Is Storm Surge?

The National Hurricane Center defines storm surge as water’s height above what astronomical tide levels would predict. In layman’s terms, storm surge is the difference between how much tide we predict and how much we observe water to rise. In non-scientific contexts, people call “storm surge” “storm tide.” This term denotes the weather effects that accompany storm surge, including water rises, tide, piled-on waves, and freshwater flooding.

Storm Surge Dangers

The weather effects of storm surge are often dangerous. When people die during tropical cyclones, they typically die from surge-related conditions. Storm surge can be particularly devastating during high tide, as this makes it more difficult to predict the amount of surge that will occur. While the SLOSH (Sea, Lake, and Overland Surges from Hurricanes) model tries to predict how much storm surge a tropical cyclone will produce, weather forecasts are only accurate on short-term bases.

What Causes Storm Surge?

Storm surge is caused by environmental factors that accompany storms, including pressure, direct wind, waves, and rainfall. Tropical cyclones’ pressure raises water levels in places where there’s low atmospheric pressure. Water levels increase at downwind shores. Strong winds produce strong waves that travel in the direction that they move. Although surface waves don’t carry much water in the middle of the ocean, they can carry a lot of water to shore, and fast. Hurricanes can pour out a foot of rainfall in one day.

Storm Surge Records

The deadliest storm surge–and the deadliest natural disaster–of all time was produced by the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. When this hurricane struck Galveston, Texas, its storm surge killed nine thousand people. The highest historically noted storm surge was produced by the 1899 Cyclone Mahina in Bathurst Bay, Australia, and was noted at forty-three feet high. In the United States the highest recorded storm surge was produced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and was noted at twenty-five feet high.

Storm Surge Management

Places that frequently suffer from coastal flooding manage surge by monitoring it. Meteorological surveys warn us when hurricanes and severe storms are coming. In places that frequently suffer from storm surge, such as the Netherlands and the United States, people construct dams and floodgates. These storm surge barriers allow free passage when open but close when threatened with storm surge. Some communities, as in the Netherlands, create floating housing communities along wetlands. By floating, these communities can better accommodate rising tides.

The highest waterfall in the world is Angel Falls, located in the Guyana highlands of Venezuela. It plunges 979 meters, or 3,212 feet–for reference, that’s fifteen times higher than Niagara Falls. The Angel Falls comprise forty-seven drops.

The Highest Waterfall’s Surroundings

Angel Falls is located in Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Canaima National Park is located in the southwest of Venezuela and to the south of the Orinoco River. The falls are deeply enmeshed in jungle and can only be reached by flight or by river trips during the rainy season. Angel Falls is dangerous to climb or descend from, as the falls create their own weather, including wind gusts and spray waves. Much of the waterfalls’ waters dissipate into mist before landing in the “Devil’s Canyon.” Those waters that do land feed into the Kerep River.

The Highest Waterfall Explored

The identity of the first European to have seen the highest waterfall is unclear. Sixteenth-century explorer Sir Walter Raleigh is widely cited as the first European to have seen Angel Falls. However, the waterfall was not widely known until Jimmy Angel’s famous 1933 flight over the waterfall in search of gold. The waterfall’s height was first officially measured by National Geographic in 1949. Today the highest waterfall is a hot tourist spot, although its summit is still difficult to reach.

The Highest Waterfall and Jimmy Angel

The highest waterfall was named in English as “Angel Falls” after Jimmy Angel, the twentieth-century explorer who was the first aviator to fly over the waterfall in a plane. Jimmy Angel’s famous flight culminated in an emergency landing atop the fall, where he abandoned his plane, trekking down the falls through the jungle for eleven days before reaching civilization. His plane remained at the top of the falls for thirty-three years, when it was brought down by helicopter. His plane is now on show in the aviation museum of Maracay.

The Highest Waterfall Renamed

The highest waterfall was in English called “Angel Falls” after Jimmy Angel, whose emergency landing atop the falls’ summit popularized the site. However, the waterfalls’ name has been disputed recently. In 2009 the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez declared his wish to rename the waterfall with its indigenous Pemon name, “Kerepakupai Meru,” which means “waterfall of the deepest place.” Chavez later elaborated on his beliefs, saying, “This [waterfall] is ours, long before Angel ever arrived there… This is indigenous property.” Chavez later clarified that he would not enforce this name change.

The history of human civilization is enmeshed with the history of water. Water has guided civilization more than any other factor. Early civilizations were centered around water sources; the secure water supply of the Fertile Crescent enabled some of the first large-scale agricultural civilizations. Water allows people to sustain themselves and their animals and determines what can be grown and where. As civilizations learn how to better control water—to irrigate and to predict the weather, for instance—they learn how to grow. Even today we still center our civilizations around water. The Middle East is exploding with wars over clean water access. As the World Bank Vice President Serageldin famously stated, “Many of the wars of the twentieth century were about oil, but the wars of the next century will be about water.”

Reasons for the History of Water

Nowadays, after the growth of industries, clean drinking water doesn’t naturally occur. Scientists continually discover contaminants in fresh water sources and correlates between drinking contaminated water and health problems. Because we need water but it is impure, we have learned to treat water. However, the history of water filtration is not a recent one; water filtration began over 4000 years ago.

Milestones in the History of Water

Some milestones in the history of water include the invention of the microscope, the advent of municipal water treatment, the use of chlorine to purify water, and the Clean Water Act of 1972.

Early in the History of Water

The earliest recorded attempts to filter water date back to 2000 BC, to early Sanskrit writings of water purification methods. These methods include boiling water and filtering water through sand or charcoal filters. The Sanskrits’ biggest motive was to make water taste better, because they assumed that good-tasting water would also be clean. People didn’t yet realize that contaminated water caused disease, and they certainly couldn’t test for diseases in water.

Later Innovations in the History of Water

In 1590, the Dutch glasses-makers Zaccharias and Hans Janssen invented the forerunner to modern-day microscopes. A century later, Anton van Leeuwenhoek, “the father of microscopy,” advanced the Janssens’ invention to the extent that scientists could now view tiny living particles in water that had previously been thought clean. In nineteenth-century London, city officials first linked cholera to bad water quality. John Snow, a British scientist, confirmed cholera bacteria in the Broad Street Pump’s water, proving that taste and visual clarity doesn’t prove water’s pureness. After this event, the British government insisted upon filtering city water, a precedent for municipal water systems. The British municipal water system cleaned water partly by treating it with chlorine.

The History of Water Continues

In the 20^th century, people increasingly agreed that every person has the right to clean water. The Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1972 made it a law that every city in the United States must have a water treatment plant. The CWA forced industrial plants to become environmentally friendly and renewed interest in water filtration, making clean water a national goal. Today the history of water continues as we strive to bring clean water to places that still need it.

The history of water treatment has been marked by slow, gradual discoveries that coincided with human development.  While water filtration technology only became successful and widely used in the 20^th century, the history of water treatment can be traced back to thousands of years ago.

Early in The History of Water Treatment

Man has sought pure, clean water for as long as he has been on Earth.  The earliest recorded mention of water filtration and purification can be found in Sanskrit writings from about 2000 B.C.E.  These writings state that “impure water should be purified by being boiled over a fire…or it may be purified by filtration through sand and coarse gravel and then allowed to cool.”  This demonstrates that even in some of the earliest civilizations the basics of water purification were known.  There is also some evidence that the ancient Egyptians used wick siphons for water clarification.  Later, following the tutelage of Hippocrates, the Greek and Roman empires used cloth bags and additives such as pounded barley to filter out bad tastes in water.

Important Discoveries in the History of Water Treatment

After Sir Francis Bacon renewed interest in filtration in 1627, a number of important scientific discoveries deeply affected the history of water treatment.  Around 1690, Anton van Leeuwenhoek invented an early version of the modern microscope, which allowed scientists to more effectively study particles in water.  Meanwhile, in Italy, Lucas Antonius Portius invented the first effective sand filtration system using multiple perforated compartments and large grains of sand.  These two inventions allowed people in 19^th century Britain to examine disease-causing bacteria in water and create one of the world’s first municipal water treatment systems.

Modern Developments in the History of Water Treatment

In the early 1900s, English physicians discovered that chlorine was very effective in eliminating disease from water, and chlorination of public water systems began.  The United States and other countries soon followed suit, and in 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency passed the Clean Water Act, requiring cities to filter public water.  Today, amid growing concerns about the safety of water fluoridation and chlorination, individual households have begun to install filtration devices to taps, showerheads, and entire plumbing systems.

The History of Water Treatment Continues

The history of water filtration is still being written.  While individuals in America and other countries continue to improve the quality of household water, many people in developing countries lack the ability to properly filter their water.  The challenge moving forward will be in improving water filtration for all of humanity.

Every year, around two thousand to ten thousand shipping containers fall off the vessels they are transported on and sink to the ocean floor. No one knows the exact number of shipping containers on the ocean floor, as shipping companies are not required to report fallen containers. Most of these companies litter the shipping lanes that crisscross our oceans. Many worry that these artificial reefs of shipping containers on the ocean floor will force sea creatures to move from one ecosystem to another, thereby damaging the delicate undersea balance.

Ahoy, Rubber Ducky!

Invading Creatures

Remember the Titanic

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