3. The Water Cycle
Condensation
Water Vapor Precipitation
Evaporation
Percolation
Water
4. The water cycle or hydrologic is a continuous cycle
where water evaporates, travels into the air and becomes
part of a cloud, falls down to earth as precipitation, and
then cycle. Water keeps moving and changing from a solid
to a liquid to a gevaporates again. This repeats again and
again in a never-ending as, over and over
again.Precipitation creates runoff that travels over the
ground surface and helps to fill lakes and rivers. It
also percolates or moves downward through openings in
the soil to replenish aquifers under the ground. Some
places receive more precipitation than others do. These
areas are usually close to oceans or large bodies of water
that allow more water to evaporate and form clouds. Other
areas receive less precipitation. Often these areas are far
from water or near mountains. As clouds move up and over
mountains, the water vapor condenses to form precipitation
and freezes. Snow falls on the peaks.
5. Earth's Water Cycle
• Water is always on the move. Rain falling where you live
may have been water in the ocean just days before. And
the water you see in a river or stream may have been
snow on a high mountaintop.
• Water can be in the atmosphere, on the land, in the
ocean, and even underground. It is recycled over and
over through the water cycle. In the cycle,
water changes state between liquid, solid (ice), and gas
(water vapor).
• Most water vapor gets into theatmosphere by a process
calledevaporation. This process turns the water that is at
the top of the ocean, rivers, and lakes into water vapor in
the atmosphere using energy from the Sun.
6. a drop of water spends an average of just Water vapor can also
form from snow and ice through the process of sublimation and
can evaporate from plants by a process calledtranspiration.
The water vapor rises in the atmosphereand cools, forming tiny
water droplets by a process called condensation. Those water
droplets make up clouds. If those tiny water droplets combine
with each other they grow larger and eventually become too
heavy to stay in the air. Then they fall to the ground as rain, snow
, and other types of precipitation.
Most of the precipitation that falls becomes a part of the ocean or
part of rivers, lakes, and streams that eventually lead to the
ocean. Some of the snow and ice that falls as precipitation stays
at the Earth surface in glaciers and other types of ice. Some of
the precipitation seeps into the ground and becomes a part of
the groundwater.
Water stays in certain places longer than others. A drop of water
may spend over 3,000 years in the ocean before moving on to
another part of the water cycle while eight days in the
atmosphere before falling back to Earth.
7. The Water Cycle (also known as the hydrologic cycle) is
the journey water takes as it circulates from the land to the
sky and back again.
The Sun's heat provides energy to evaporate water from
the Earth's surface (oceans, lakes, etc.). Plants also lose
water to the air (this is called transpiration). The water
vapor eventually condenses, forming tiny droplets in
clouds. When the clouds meet cool air over land,
precipitation (rain, sleet, or snow) is triggered, and water
returns to the land (or sea). Some of the precipitation soaks
into the ground. Some of the underground water is trapped
between rock or clay layers; this is called groundwater. But
most of the water flows downhill as runoff (above ground or
underground), eventually returning to the seas as slightly
salty water.
8.
9. The water cycle begins with water. Water is found in many
places. A few of them are as follows:
Lakes, rivers, oceans, ponds, puddles, reservoirs, and
many other places.
10. The next stage is evaporation. This is a process where the
water is heated and turned into a water vapor. The sun is the
main heat source for this process.
11. The next stage is condensation. This is where warm and cold air
collide and form ice crystals that condense and form droplets of water.
These water droplets eventually become to heavy and begin to fall in
the form of precipitation.
12. The next stage is Precipitation. This is water falling to the
earth in the form of snow, hail, rain, sleet, or glaze.
13. The next stage is percolation. The water seeps through the
soil and ends up in the water table. It then flows into the
streams, lakes, oceans, and other bodies of water. The
process is then repeated again and again.
14. Now you’re ready for the
EXAMINATION!
On the next page, complete the chart.
15. The Water Cycle Examination!
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16. The Water Cycle Answers!
Condensation
Water Vapor Precipitation
Evaporation
Percolation
Water
