Group 5 Presents

The Water Cycle

What is it and how does it work?

The Water Cycle

Condensation

Water Vapor

Water

Precipitation

Evaporation

Percolation

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

The next stage is Precipitation. This is water falling to the earth in the form of snow, hail, rain, sleet, or glaze.

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.

Now you’re ready for the EXAMINATION!

On the next page, complete the chart.

The Water Cycle Examination!

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The Water Cycle Answers!

Condensation

Percolation

Water Vapor

Water

Precipitation

Evaporation

THE END