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    00-Info The Water Cycle

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    00-Info The Water Cycle

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    00-Info the Water Cycle

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    7 views1 page

    00-Info The Water Cycle

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    q8jn48gfs6

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    GLOBAL STUDIES Date:

    Globale Ökosysteme

    Information: The Water Cycle


    Earth's water is always in movement, and the natural water cycle, also known as the
    hydrologic cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below
    the surface of the Earth. Water is always changing states between liquid, vapor, and
    ice, with these processes happening in the blink of an eye and over millions of years.
    Where does all the Earth's water come from? Primordial Earth (=die Ursprungserde)
    was an incandescent (=strahlend) globe made of magma, but all magmas contain
    water. Water set free by magma began to cool down the Earth's atmosphere, until it
    could stay on the surface as a liquid. Volcanic activity kept and still keeps introducing
    water in the atmosphere, thus increasing the surface- and groundwater volume of the
    Earth.
    The water cycle has no starting point.
    But, we'll begin in the oceans, since that is where most of Earth's water exists. The
    sun, which drives the water cycle, heats water in the oceans. Some of it evaporates
    (=verdampft) as vapor (=Wasserdampf) into the air. Ice and snow can sublimate
    directly into water vapor. Rising air currents take the vapor up into the atmosphere,
    along with water from evapotranspiration (=Verdunstung), which is water transpired
    from plants and evaporated from the soil. The vapor rises into the air where cooler
    temperatures cause it to condense into clouds.
    Air currents move clouds around the globe, cloud particles collide, grow, and fall out
    of the sky as precipitation. Some precipitation falls as snow and can accumulate as
    ice caps and glaciers, which can store frozen water for thousands of years.
    Snowpacks in warmer climates often thaw and melt when spring arrives, and the
    melted water flows overland as snowmelt.
    Most precipitation falls back into the oceans or onto land, where, due to gravity, the
    precipitation flows over the ground as surface runoff. A portion of runoff enters rivers
    in valleys in the landscape, with streamflow moving water towards the oceans.
    Runoff, and groundwater seepage, accumulate (=sammeln) and are stored as
    freshwater in lakes. Not all runoff flows into rivers, though. Much of it soaks into the
    ground as infiltration (=Versickerung). Some water infiltrates deep into the ground
    and fills up aquifers (saturated subsurface rock), which store huge amounts of
    freshwater for long periods of time.
    Some infiltration stays close to the land surface and can seep back into surface-
    water bodies (and the ocean) as groundwater discharge (=Abfluss), and some
    groundwater finds openings in the land surface and emerges as freshwater springs.
    Over time, though, all of this water keeps moving, some to reenter the ocean, where
    the water cycle "ends" ... oops - I mean, where it "begins."

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