Transcript Water Cycle

The Water Cycle
Brie, Ethan, Bethany, Haley
The Water Cycle
• The water cycle is made up of four parts:
Evaporation (Transpiration)
Condensation
Precipitation
Collection
Evaporation
• Evaporation is the process when water is
converted from liquid to a vapor
• 80% of precipitation comes from the
oceans
• Four trillion gallons of water fall to the
Earth each day, and the remaining stays
up in the atmosphere, and starts the
evaporation cycle again.
Transpiration
• The sun warms the Earth and its
atmosphere, then wind currents draw
moisture from little openings in leaves of
plants
• The water is taken up by the roots of the
plants and travels up the plants
• The water from the leaves evaporates and
goes back up into the atmosphere
Transpiration Cont.
• When forests are cut down, the water
cycle is disrupted and less moisture is
returned to the atmosphere
• The water cycle is driven by the sun
• About 10% of the moisture found in the
atmosphere is released by plants through
transpiration
Condensation
• The water vapor gets cold, and turns back
into a liquid
– Making a cloud
• Water vapor in the atmosphere
condenses and falls to the Earth as rain or
snow
• The availability of water determines the
diversity of ecosystems
Precipitation
• Water falls to the Earth’s surface as
precipitation
• As it is precipitating, evaporation is still
going into the atmosphere
• The water cycle never stops
• Some of that water seeps into the soil and
becomes ground water
Precipitation Cont.
• The remaining water then reenters the
atmosphere by evaporation from lakes,
rivers, and oceans
• Ground water is stored below the Earth’s
surface
• The runoff water flows back into oceans
and lakes
• That water then evaporates
Collection
• When precipitation falls to the Earth, it
may fall into lakes, oceans, rivers, or it
may stay on land
• When the water stays on the land, animals
or plants use it to drink or it may run over
the soil and collect back into the oceans,
rivers, or lakes; starting the cycle over
again
Facts
• If you live in the United States, there are
40 trillion gallons of water above your
head on an average day.
• The water in your glass today may have
fallen from the sky just last week
• The water that was in the apple you ate
today may have fallen as rain half-way
around the world last year or it could have
been used 100 million years ago by
dinosaurs
Evaporation
Collection
Condensation