Shannon Moore Nicole Sienkiewicz

 Take a moment to fill out what you know in the worksheet*.  *Note that the numbers do not indicate the order in which they occur.

 The water cycle is also known as something else. Do you know what it’s called?  The hydrologic cycle!

 Evaporation  Transpiration  Condensation ◦ (clouds form)  Precipitation  Surface runoff  Subsurface runoff  Accumulation

 the sun heats up water in rivers, lakes or the ocean  turns it into vapor or steam  the water vapor or steam leaves the river, lake or ocean  goes into the air

 water vapor in the air cools  condenses and forms clouds in the atmosphere by changing back into a liquid

 when a build up of water has condensed, the clouds cannot hold it anymore  clouds get heavy and water falls to the earth  this happens in the form of rain, hail, sleet or snow (depending on temperature)

 surface runoff is precipitation runoff over the landscape

 Can be affected by: ◦ Type of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, etc.) ◦ Rainfall:  intensity  amount  length  distribution ◦ Direction of storm movement ◦ Earlier precipitation ◦ Soil moisture as a result of precipitation

 the water that infiltrates the unsaturated zone from precipitation of different types  moves towards the streams (its own level)  contributes to accumulation in bodies of water

 water falls to earth as precipitation  goes to oceans, lakes, rivers or land

 when it ends up on land, one of two things will happen: ◦ 1. it will soak into the earth and become part of the “ground water”  plants and animals use it to drink ◦ 2. precipitation can run over soil and collect in the oceans, lakes or rivers  then the cycle starts all over again

 the process by which plants lose water out of their leaves  helps evaporation out by getting the water vapor back into the air  basically the same process as evaporation, but through plants (a different source)  can occur at different rates

  ams/watercycle/watercycleq.html ams/watercycle/watercycleq.html