417 words used in the labs.

Find a term from the labs, understand the process behind it, and see how it appears in the landscape. Each entry connects an explanation with a real observation and a model you can explore.

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Term

Abstraction

The removal of water by people from a river, lake or aquifer for uses such as irrigation or drinking supplies. A store can shrink when abstraction and other losses exceed recharge, even though water continues circulating globally.

What to look for

Groundwater hand pump at Perambalur, India. Abstraction removes water from an aquifer; pumping may lower the water level around a well, which is measured below ground.

Related labs

Water cycle stores and flows →

Mark understood

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