This cycle is made up of a few
main parts
- evaporation
- 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.
Evaporation
Condensation:
Water vapor in the air gets cold and changes back into liquid, forming
clouds. This is called condensation.
Condensation
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
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.
Collection
How the Water Cycle Works
Solar energy evaporates exposed water from seas,
lakes, rivers, and wet soils; the majority of this evaporation takes place over
the seas. Water is also released into the atmosphere by the plants through
photosynthesis. During this process, known as evapotranspiration water vapour
rises into the atmosphere.
Clouds form when air becomes saturated with
water vapour. The two major types of cloud formation are stratified or layered
grey cloud called stratus, and billowing white or dark grey cloud called
cumulus. Nimbostratus clouds and cumulonimbus clouds are the two cloud types
that are associated with rainy weather; nimbostratus clouds will bring steady
rain, and cumulonimbus clouds will bring stormy weather.
Precipitation as rain or hail ensures that water
return to Earth’s surface in a fresh form. Some of this rain, however, falls
into the seas and is not accessible to human. When rain falls, it either washes
down hill slopes or seeps underground; when snow and hail melt, this water may
also sink into the ground.
Rain fall also replenishes river water supplies,
as does underground water. Snow fall may consolidate into glaciers and ice
sheets which, when they melt, release their water into the ground, into stream
or into the seas.
(source: Geographica’s Pocket World Preference, 2001)
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