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The Water Cycle

The Water Cycle
[in Spanish] © Contributed by Leanne Guenther Run and get a glass of water and put it on the table next to you. Take a good long look at the water. The water in your glass may have fallen from the sky as rain just last week, but the water itself has been around pretty much as long as the earth has! When the first fish crawled out of the ocean onto the land, your glass of water was part of that ocean. And you thought your parents were OLD The earth has a limited amount of water. This cycle is made up of a few main parts: evaporation (and transpiration) condensation precipitation collection Evaporation: Evaporation is when the sun heats up water in rivers or lakes or the ocean and turns it into vapor or steam. Do plants sweat? Well, sort of.... Condensation: Water vapor in the air gets cold and changes back into liquid, forming clouds. You can see the same sort of thing at home... Precipitation: Precipitation occurs when so much water has condensed that the air cannot hold it anymore. Collection:

QCA document Visit the Canterbury Environmental Education Centre ( details ) and undertake one of the relevant programmes, 'Water Cycle at Broad Oak Lakes' 'Weather Days' or the 'Great Stour River Study.' The Great Stour River Study programme involves walking along a section of the river refering to maps, noting relevant geographical, man made and biological features and undertaking simple experiments (for example measure differing speed of channel flow). Visit the Virtual Tour pages to take this walk along the Great Stour, which can be used to prime or reinforce the field work. The Photo and Map pages are a good source of secondary information. The photographs focus on the Great Stour River along its course and the maps show the catchment area, topography and geology of the Gt Stour River basin. Use the Gt Stour Case Study pages as a secondary source of information on pollution, farming, industry and development and the potential impacts upon the Great Stour.

The water cycle, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Water Science School 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. Global water distribution For an estimated explanation of where Earth's water exists, look at the chart below. Notice how of the world's total water supply of about 332.5 million cubic miles of water, over 96 percent is saline. Source: Igor Shiklomanov's chapter "World fresh water resources" in Peter H. Where is Earth's water? For a detailed explanation of where Earth's water is, look at the data table below.

Condensation - The Water Cycle, from USGS Water-Science School Clouds over Kiger Notch, Steen's Mountain, OregonCredit: Bureau of Land Management View full size Condensation is the process by which water vapor in the air is changed into liquid water. Condensation is crucial to the water cycle because it is responsible for the formation of clouds. You don't have to look at something as far away as a cloud to notice condensation, though. The phase change that accompanies water as it moves between its vapor, liquid, and solid form is exhibited in the arrangement of water molecules. The little cloud that could—but why? Condensation in the air Even though clouds are absent in a crystal clear blue sky, water is still present in the form of water vapor and droplets which are too small to be seen. You might ask ... why is it colder higher up? Cumulonimbus cloud over Africa, taken from the International Space Station. View full size The clouds formed by condensation are an intricate and critical component of Earth's environment. Condensation near the ground

How Water Works | HowStuffWorks In its purest form, it's odorless, nearly colorless and tasteless. It's in your body, the food you eat and the beverages you drink. You use it to clean yourself, your clothes, your dishes, your car and everything else around you. You can travel on it or jump in it to cool off on hot summer days. Many of the products that you use every day contain it or were manufactured using it. All forms of life need it, and if they don't get enough of it, they die. At its most basic, water is a molecule with one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, bonded together by shared electrons. Water is the only substance that occurs naturally as a solid (ice), a liquid and a gas (water vapor). So water is pretty simple, right? In its purest form, it's odorless, nearly colorless and tasteless. At its most basic, water is a molecule with one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, bonded together by shared electrons. So water is pretty simple, right?

The Water Cycle Home The Earth is the water planet. Between two-thirds and three-fourths of its surface is water. Oceans supply the most water, but it also can be found in ponds, rivers, in clouds, and in lakes. The Earth is full of water. The water cycle is made up of four main parts: Evaporation and Transpiration, Condensation, Precipitation, and Accumulation. Evaporation is when the heat from the sun warms up water and turns it into water vapor. Water even evaporates from plants. You have already learned that condensation turns water vapor back to a liquid that forms clouds. Precipitation is also part of the hydrologic cycle. Accumulation of the precipitation is the final stage of the water cycle before it starts all over again.

The condensation stage of the water cycle Condensation Here is a scenario of how condensation works: Put a pot of water on the stove and bring it to a boil. Take a dry lid and cover it for a minute, and lift the lid up. What happens? Water droplets run down the lid and falls back into the pot. That is simply what happens during condensation. Condensation the process by which water vapor (gas) in the atmosphere turns into water (liquid state). As water vapor rises into the atmosphere, they mix up with very tiny particles of dust, soot and salt, which are all particulate matter in the atmosphere. Soon, there is so much moisture in the atmosphere, far more than the air in that region can take.

The water cycle — Science Learning Hub The Earth has a finite amount of water. The water that is here today is the same water that will be here in 20 or even 20 million years’ time. So, if all living things use water, how is it that we don’t use up all our water? Dynamic and complex: the global water cycle An interactive diagram featuring the global water cycle with explanations from four New Zealand scientists. The water cycle encompasses a number of processes that circulate water through the Earth’s subsystems. The dynamic water cycle In this video, 4 New Zealand scientists – Dave Campbell, Louis Schipper, David Hamilton and Keith Hunter – talk about how only a small percentage of the Earth’s water is freshwater, and of that small percentage, only a fraction is available for human use. Water and the atmosphere Water enters the atmosphere through evaporation10, transpiration, excretion and sublimation: Transpiration is the loss of water from plants (via their leaves). Water and the biosphere, hydrosphere and geosphere

Earth Floor: Cycles The Water Cycle Water on Earth is always changing. Its repeating changes make a cycle. As water goes through its cycle, it can be a solid (ice), a liquid (water), or a gas (water vapor). Ice can change to become water or water vapor. How do these changes happen? If heat is taken away from water vapor, it condenses. The water cycle is called the hydrologic cycle. The cycle continues. Back The Water Cycle | Climate Education Modules for K-12 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, King Tut, and George Washington. What makes that awesome feat possible? The first step of the water cycle is evaporation. The second step of the water cycle is condensation. The third and final step of the water cycle is precipitation. Aside from the above steps of the water cycle, there are also ways that water can be stored on Earth that play a role in the water cycle at various times throughout the year. As precipitation falls towards the earth, some of the water seeps into the ground, a process known as infiltration. The factors that impact infiltration also impact surface runoff.

The science of water - An introduction to its amazing properties Advertisement by Chris Woodford. Last updated: August 23, 2016. Pour yourself a glass of water and you could be drinking some of the same molecules that passed through the lips of Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Martin Luther King, or Adolf Hitler. Photo: Water covers over two thirds of Earth's surface and is an essential ingredient for all the flourishing life our planet enjoys—including this lily of the valley plant. What is water? We can answer that question in many different ways. Chemically speaking, water is a liquid substance made of molecules—a single, large drop of water weighing 0.1g contains about 3 billion trillion (3,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) of them! Most of the water in our world is a combination of "ordinary" hydrogen atoms with "ordinary" oxygen atoms, but there are actually three different istopes (atomic varieties) of hydrogen and each of those can combine with oxygen to give a different kind of water. Water has no end of amazing properties. Water, ice, and steam Patents

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