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7.1: The Unique Properties of Water

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    Water plays a role in the formation of most sedimentary rocks. It is one of the main agents involved in creating the minerals in chemical sedimentary rock. It also is a weathering and erosion agent, producing the grains that become detrital sedimentary rock. Several special properties make water an especially unique substance, and integral to the production of sediments and sedimentary rock.

    H2O_2D_labelled.svg_.png

    The water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to one oxygen atom arranged in a specific and important geometry. The two hydrogen atoms are separated by an angle of about 105 degrees, and both are located to one side of the oxygen atom [1]. This atomic arrangement, with the positively charged hydrogens on one side and negatively charged oxygen on the other side, gives the water molecule. This property is called polarity. Resembling a battery or a magnet, the molecule’s positive-negative architecture leads to a whole suite of properties.

    The water drops are sticking to a spider's web
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Dew on a spider’s web.

    Polarity allows water molecules to stick to other substances. This is called adhesion. Water is also attracted to itself, a property called cohesion, which leads to water’s most common form in the air, a droplet. Cohesion is responsible for creating surface tension, which various insects use to walk on water by distributing their weight across the surface.

    The fact that water is attracted to itself leads to another important property, one that is extremely rare in the natural world—the liquid form is denser than the solid form. The polarity of water creates a special type of weak bonding called hydrogen bonds. Hydrogen bonds allow the molecules in liquid water to sit close together. Water is densest at 4°C and is less dense above and below that temperature. As water solidifies into ice, the molecules must move apart in order to fit into the crystal lattice, causing water to expand and become less dense as it freezes. Because of this, ice floats and water sinks, which keeps the oceans liquid and prevents them from freezing solid from the bottom up. This unique property of water keeps Earth, the water planet, habitable.

    The negative part of the water molecules surrounds the positively-charged sodium ion.
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): A sodium (Na) ion in solution.

    Even more critical for supporting life, water remains liquid over a very large range of temperatures, which is also a result of cohesion. Hydrogen bonding allows liquid water can absorb high amounts of energy before turning into vapor or gas. The wide range across which water remains a liquid, 0°C-100°C (32°F-212°F), is rarely exhibited in other substances. Without this high boiling point, liquid water as we know it would be constricted to narrow temperature zones on Earth, instead of being found from pole to pole.

    Water is a universal solvent, meaning it dissolves more substances than any other commonly found, naturally occurring liquid. The water molecules use polarity and hydrogen bonds to pry ions away from the crystal lattice. Water is such a powerful solvent, it can dissolve even the strongest rocks and minerals given enough time.


    This page titled 7.1: The Unique Properties of Water is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Chris Johnson, Matthew D. Affolter, Paul Inkenbrandt, & Cam Mosher (OpenGeology) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.