Answer to Question 1
The Colorado River flows Wyoming to the southwestern United States. It supplies water for roughly 30 million people in 7 states (Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and California) and northern Mexico. Within these states, rapidly growing urban areas, such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Denver, and San Diego are dependent on the river. In order to equitably allocate the water, the seven states joined the Colorado River Compact, while the US. signed the Mexican Water treaty. In addition to the pressures put on the river by these populations, the Colorado River is an exotic stream with natural stream flow variability. Recent droughts have added extra strains on this resource.
Answer to Question 2
Precipitation is the main source of groundwater, percolating downward as gravitational water from the soil moisture zone, moving through the zone of aeration and, eventually, accumulating in the zone of saturation. The upper limit of the zone of saturation is the water table.
An aquifer is a subsurface layer of permeable rock or unconsolidated materials through which groundwater can flow. The two types are confined (bounded by impermeable layers above and below) and unconfined (bounded by permeable surface only below).
Humans extract groundwater from aquifers via wells. In unconfined aquifers, the water is not under pressure and must be pumped. In confined aquifers, the water is under pressure and may rise under its own pressure to the potentiometric surface.
Overconsumption of groundwater can lead to the lowering of the water table (drawdown) and a cone of depression. When water is used beyond the flow and recharge capacities of an aquifer, groundwater mining occurs.
Black flies are blood-sucking insects who vector disease, like River Blindness, while feeding on hum
The Amazon River Watershed
A sidewheeler on the Mississippi. In 1856 Samuel Clemens became an apprentice to a steamboat pilot a
Christo, Over the River, Project for the Arkansas River, State of Colorado.
River Systems
Meander Loop on the Colorado River