What is the Water Cycle?
The water on Earth now is the same water that’s been on Earth since the beginning. The rain that falls on us is the same water that rained on the dinosaurs. How is that possible? Of course it is, its all because of the the water cycle. The Water Cycle is an continuous process where water is circulated throughout the Earth and the atmosphere through three main steps: Evaporation,Condensation, Precipitation. The water on the Earth is always moving and it always changing. It changes from liquid to water vapour, vapour to ice, and it keeps repeating.
The water on Earth now is the same water that’s been on Earth since the beginning. The rain that falls on us is the same water that rained on the dinosaurs. How is that possible? Of course it is, its all because of the the water cycle. The Water Cycle is an continuous process where water is circulated throughout the Earth and the atmosphere through three main steps: Evaporation,Condensation, Precipitation. The water on the Earth is always moving and it always changing. It changes from liquid to water vapour, vapour to ice, and it keeps repeating.
How does the Water Cycle work?
The way the water cycle works is that the sun heats the water in the oceans. Then some of it evaporates as vapour in the air. Rising air currents take the vapour into the atmosphere, along with water from transpiration. Which is water transpired from plants and evaporated from the soil. The water vapour rises into the air where the cooler air causes it to condense into clouds. Air currents move clouds around the globe, and 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. 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 stream flow moving water towards the oceans. Runoff, and groundwater seepage, accumulate and are stored as freshwater in lakes. Much of it soaks into the ground as infiltration. Some of the water infiltrates into the ground and replenishes 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, and some groundwater finds openings in the land surface and emerges as freshwater springs. Yet more groundwater is absorbed by plant roots to end up as transpiration from the leaves. And then then the whole process will keep repeating for years on.
The way the water cycle works is that the sun heats the water in the oceans. Then some of it evaporates as vapour in the air. Rising air currents take the vapour into the atmosphere, along with water from transpiration. Which is water transpired from plants and evaporated from the soil. The water vapour rises into the air where the cooler air causes it to condense into clouds. Air currents move clouds around the globe, and 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. 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 stream flow moving water towards the oceans. Runoff, and groundwater seepage, accumulate and are stored as freshwater in lakes. Much of it soaks into the ground as infiltration. Some of the water infiltrates into the ground and replenishes 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, and some groundwater finds openings in the land surface and emerges as freshwater springs. Yet more groundwater is absorbed by plant roots to end up as transpiration from the leaves. And then then the whole process will keep repeating for years on.