The Water Cycle. Exam-#1

The Water Cycle.

When discussing the water cycles, many topics are available to be discussed. The water cycle is actually a broad topic to look in depth at. The water cycle includes 8 main terms that help to describe it and what it does. Those terms are evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, surface runoff, groundwater & absorption.First off, evaporation is the process at which the water changes from a liquid to a gas or vapor. When you heat a liquid, expansion takes place which breaks the bonding between the molecules (the force required to break the bonding is called Vander wall Force), due to which the packing gets loosened and getting transformed to gasses. This process is called evaporation.Secondly, Transpiration is the process by which the moisture is carried between the plants from the small pores on the underneath of leaves. It is a similar process to evaporation.Next, Condensation is the process by which water vapor in the air is changed into liquid water. Condensation is important to the water cycle because it is responsible for the formation of clouds. These clouds may produce precipitation, which is the primary route for water to return to the Earth's surface within the water cycle. Condensation is the opposite of evaporation.Precipitation is water released from clouds in the form of rain, freezing rain, sleet, or hail. This is primarily important in the water cycle because it’s the delivery of atmospheric water to the Earth. Infiltration remains in the shallow soil layer where it will gradually move vertically or horizontally through the soil and subsurface material. Surface runoff is the water that returns from the Earths precipitation and runs off the surface of the land and flows down the hill and goes into stream, rivers, and ponds. Through the surface runoff much of the water returns to the river, streams, and ponds again. Groundwater is located beneath the ground surface in a soil pore spaces. Groundwater is thought of as liquid water flowing through shallow aquifers.Absorbtion is the way the energy of a photon is taken up by matter, usually the electrons of an atom. So, the electromagnetic energy is transformed to other forms of energy, for example, to heat.A watershed is an area on land where all the water flows in it and the drains and off it goes to the same place. It may be large or very small. Many large watersheds contain another smaller watershed. A stream flow is changing all the time, constantly by the minute. Flooding occurs in both natural and developed watersheds. When the rate of rainfall or snowmelt exceeds the rate of infiltration to the ground, the excess water, called runoff, moves across the ground surface toward the lowest section of the watershed. As the surface runoff enters stream channels, stream levels increase. If the rate of runoff is high enough, water in the stream overflows the banks and flooding occurs. Erosion is distinguished from weathering, which is the breaking down of rock and particles through processes where no movement is involved, although the two processes may be concurrent. A person could go on for hours about the water cycle but i'm now done discussing it :)

BIB
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070102235413AAIUooZhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpirationhttp://www.regentsprep.org/Regents/earthsci/units/weathering/erosion.cfmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundwater)(http://www.angelfire.com/nj/PflommScience/H20Cycle.htmhttp://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycleinfiltration.html)(http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycleprecipitation.html)(http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercyclecondensation.html(http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycletranspiration.html(http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycleevaporation.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_(electromagnetic_radiation)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drainage_basin

PICTURES
cd7.e2bn.net/.../cd7/website/BluePlanet.htmhttp://earthnet-geonet.ca/images/glossary/erosion.jpg
http://geoscape.nrcan.gc.ca/h2o/bowen/acquire_e.php