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    Water Cycle

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    Anellah Ali
    The water cycle describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. Water can exist in three forms - liquid, gas (water vapor), and solid (ice) - and moves between these states as part of the cycle. Water evaporates from the surface into the atmosphere, condenses to form clouds, and falls back to Earth as precipitation in forms such as rain or snow. It may then flow over or soak into the ground, with some transpiring into the air from plants and some running into bodies of water to repeat the cycle.

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    Water Cycle

    Uploaded by

    Anellah Ali
    486 views2 pages
    The water cycle describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. Water can exist in three forms - liquid, gas (water vapor), and solid (ice) - and moves between these states as part of the cycle. Water evaporates from the surface into the atmosphere, condenses to form clouds, and falls back to Earth as precipitation in forms such as rain or snow. It may then flow over or soak into the ground, with some transpiring into the air from plants and some running into bodies of water to repeat the cycle.

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    The water cycle describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. Water can exist in three forms - liquid, gas (water vapor), and solid (ice) - and moves between these states as part of the cycle. Water evaporates from the surface into the atmosphere, condenses to form clouds, and falls back to Earth as precipitation in forms such as rain or snow. It may then flow over or soak into the ground, with some transpiring into the air from plants and some running into bodies of water to repeat the cycle.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    486 views2 pages

    Water Cycle

    Uploaded by

    Anellah Ali
    The water cycle describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. Water can exist in three forms - liquid, gas (water vapor), and solid (ice) - and moves between these states as part of the cycle. Water evaporates from the surface into the atmosphere, condenses to form clouds, and falls back to Earth as precipitation in forms such as rain or snow. It may then flow over or soak into the ground, with some transpiring into the air from plants and some running into bodies of water to repeat the cycle.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    THE WATER CYCLE

    The water cycle shows the continuous movement of water within the Earth and
    atmosphere. It is a complex system that includes many different processes. Liquid water
    evaporates into water vapor, condenses to form clouds, and precipitates back to earth
    in the form of rain and snow. Water in different phases moves through the atmosphere
    (transportation). Liquid water flows across land (runoff), into the ground (infiltration and
    percolation), and through the ground (groundwater). Groundwater moves into plants
    (plant uptake) and evaporates from plants into the atmosphere (transpiration). Solid ice
    and snow can turn directly into gas (sublimation). The opposite can also take place when
    water vapor becomes solid (deposition).

    1. Evaporation
    Evaporation, one of the major processes in the cycle, is the transfer of water from the
    surface of the Earth to the atmosphere. By evaporation, water in the liquid state is
    transferred to the gaseous, or vapour, state. This transfer occurs when some molecules
    in a water mass have attained sufficient kinetic energy to eject themselves from the
    water surface. The main factors affecting evaporation are temperature, humidity, wind
    speed, and solar radiation.

    2. Condensation
    Water vapor in the air gets cold and changes back into liquid, forming clouds. The
    transition process from the vapour state to the liquid state is called condensation.
    Condensation may take place as soon as the air contains more water vapour than it can
    receive from a free water surface through evaporation at the prevailing temperature.
    This condition occurs as the consequence of either cooling or the mixing of air masses
    of different temperatures.
    3. Precipitation
    By condensation, water vapour in the atmosphere is released to form precipitation.
    Precipitation occurs when so much water has condensed that the air cannot hold it
    anymore. The clouds get heavy and water falls back to the earth in the form of rain, hail,
    sleet or snow.

    Precipitation that falls to the Earth is distributed in four main ways: some is returned to
    the atmosphere by evaporation, some may be intercepted by vegetation and then
    evaporated from the surface of leaves, some percolates into the soil by infiltration, and
    the remainder flows directly as surface runoff into the sea. Some of the infiltrated
    precipitation may later percolate into streams as groundwater runoff. Direct
    measurement of runoff is made by stream gauges and plotted against time on
    hydrographs. Most groundwater is derived from precipitation that has percolated
    through the soil.

    4. Collection
    When water falls back to earth as precipitation, it may fall back in the oceans, lakes or
    rivers or it may end up on land. When it ends up on land, it will either soak into the
    earth and become part of the “ground water” that plants and animals use to drink or it
    may run over the soil and collect in the oceans, lakes or rivers where the cycle starts

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