HYDROLOGIC CYCLE (WATER CYCLE)
attained sufficient kinetic energy to
• Describes how water is
exchanged(cycled) through Earth’s
land, ocean, and atmosphere.
The water cycle consists of three major
process:
• Evaporation
-process of a liquid's surface changing
to a gas
- the process by which
liquid water enters the atmosphere as
water vapour in the water cycle.
-liquid water (in the ocean, lakes, or
rivers) evaporates and becomes water
vapor
-Water vapor surrounds us, as an
important part of the air we breathe. -
-Water vapor is also an
important greenhouse gas.
-Greenhouse gases such as water
vapor and carbon
dioxide insulate Earth and keep the
planet warm enough to maintain life
as we know it.
-Increasing amounts of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere also
contribute to global warming.
-water cycle's evaporation process is
driven by the sun.
-As the sun interacts with liquid water
on the surface of the ocean, the
water becomes an invisible gas
(water vapor). Evaporation is also
influenced by wind, temperature, and
the density of the body of water.
-Evaporation, mostly from
the oceans and from vegetation,
replenishes the humidity of the air.
-It is an important part of the
exchange of energy in the Earth-
atmosphere system that produces
atmospheric motion and
therefore weather and climate.
-This transfer of water
between Earth’s surface and the
atmosphere occurs when
some molecules in a water mass have
eject themselves from the water
surface.
-The main factors affecting
evaporation are temperature
(specifically, the temperature
difference between the evaporating
surface and the air), relative
humidity, wind speed, and solar
radiation.
• Condensation
-the process of a gas changing to a
liquid.
-In the water cycle, water vapor in the
atmosphere condenses and becomes
liquid.
- deposition of a liquid or a solid from
its vapour, generally upon
a surface that is cooler than
the adjacent gas.
-A substance condenses when
the pressure exerted by its vapour
exceeds the vapour pressure of the
liquid or solid phase of the substance
at the temperature of the surface
where condensation occurs.
-Heat is released when a vapour
condenses. Unless this heat is
removed, the surface temperature will
increase until it is equal to that of the
surrounding vapour.
-If air were free of tiny particles,
called aerosols, condensation would
only occur when the air was
extremely supersaturated with water
vapour.
-In the atmosphere, however, there is
an abundant supply of aerosols, which
serve as nuclei, called condensation
nuclei, on which water vapour may
condense. Some are hygroscopic
(moisture-attracting),
and condensation begins on them
when the relative humidity is less than
100 percent, but other nuclei require
some supersaturation before
condensation begins.
 -In the atmosphere the relative
humidity of the air is increased, and
condensation results when air
temperature is reduced to the dew
point or when sufficient water vapour
is added to saturate the air.
-Condensation accounts for the
formation of dew, fog, and clouds.
For rain to occur, other physical
processes are required.
-Condensation can happen high in the
atmosphere or at ground
level. Clouds form as
water vapor condenses, or becomes
more concentrated (dense).
Water vapor condenses around tiny
particles called cloud condensation
nuclei (CCN). CCN can be specks of
dust, salt, or pollutants. Clouds at
ground level are called fog or mist.
-Like evaporation, condensation is
also influenced by the sun. As
water vapor cools, it reaches its
saturation limit, or dew point. Air
pressure is also an important
influence on the dew point of an area.
• Precipitation
-all liquid and solid water particles
that fall from clouds and reach the
ground. These particles
include drizzle, rain, snow, snow
pellets, ice crystals, and hail.
-Precipitation describes any liquid or
solid water that falls to Earth as a
result of condensation in the
atmosphere.
-The essential difference between a
precipitation particle and
a cloud particle is one of size. An
average raindrop has a mass
equivalent to about one million cloud
droplets. Because of their large size,
precipitation particles have significant
falling speeds and are able to survive
the fall from the cloud to the ground.
-The transition from a cloud
containing only cloud droplets to one
containing a mixture of cloud droplets
and precipitation particles involves
two basically different steps:
the formation of incipient precipitatio
n elements directly from the vapour
state and the subsequent growth of
those elements through aggregation
and collision with cloud droplets.
• Water Cycle and climate
-Climate is all the weather conditions
of an area, evaluated over a period of
time. Two weather conditions that
contribute
to climate include humidity and temp
erature. These weather conditions are
influenced by the water cycle.
-Humidity is simply the amount of
water vapor in the air. As water vapor
is not evenly distributed by the water
cycle, some regions experience higher
humidity than others. This contributes
to radically different climates. Islands
or coastal regions, where water vapor
makes up more of the atmosphere,
are usually much more humid than
inland regions, where water vapor is
scarcer.
-A region's temperature also relies on
the water cycle. Through the water
cycle, heat is exchanged
and temperatures fluctuate. As water
evaporates, for example, it absorbs
energy and cools the local
environment. As water condenses, it
releases energy and warms the local
environment.
• Water Cycle and the Landscape
-The water cycle also influences
the physical geography of Earth.
Glacial melt and erosion caused by
water are two of the ways the water
cycle helps create Earth's physical
features.
-As glaciers slowly expand across
a landscape, they can carve away
entire valleys, create mountain peaks,
and leave behind rubble as big as
boulders.
 -Glacial melt can also
create landforms. The Great Lakes, for
example, are part of the landscape of
the Midwest of the United States and
Canada. The Great Lakes were created
as an enormous ice sheet melted and
retreated, leaving liquid pools.
-The process of erosion and the
movement of runoff also create
varied landscapes across Earth's
surface. Erosion is the process by
which earth is worn away by liquid
water, wind, or ice.
-Erosion can include the movement of
runoff. The flow of water can help
carve enormous canyons, for example.
These canyons can be carved by rivers
on high plateaus.
-They can also be carved by currents
deep in the ocean.
• Reservoir and Residence Time
-Reservoirs are simply where water
exists at any point in the water cycle.
An underground aquifer can store
liquid water, for example. The ocean is
a reservoir. Ice sheets are reservoirs.
The atmosphere itself is a reservoir of
water vapor.
-Residence time is the amount of time
a water molecule spends in one
reservoir. For instance, the residence
time of "fossil water,"
ancient groundwater reservoirs, can
be thousands of years.
-Calculating residence time can be an
important tool for developers and
engineers. Engineers may consult a
reservoir's residence time when
evaluating how quickly a pollutant will
spread through the reservoir, for
instance. Residence time may also
influence how communities use an
aquifer.
• Transpiration
-in botany, a plant’s loss of water,
mainly through the stomata of leaves.
Stomatal openings are necessary to
admit carbon dioxide to
the leaf interior and to
allow oxygen to escape
during photosynthesis.
-Most of the water absorbed by the
roots of a plant—as much as 99.5
percent—is not used for growth or
metabolism; it is excess water, and it
leaves the plant through transpiration.
--It has been proposed that
transpiration provides the energy to
transport water in the plant and may
aid in heat dissipation in direct
sunlight (by cooling
through evaporation of water).
-transpiration occurred from the
leaves and that this process
encouraged a continuous upward flow
of water and dissolved nutrients from
the roots
-Modern research has shown that as
much as 99 percent of the water
taken in by the roots of a plant is
released into the air as water vapour.
-Transpiration is very important for
maintaining moisture conditions in
the environment. As much as 10
percent of the moisture in the
Earth’s atmosphere is from
transpiration of water by plants.
• Breaking the Cycle
-The water cycle can change. Glacial
retreat is the process in which glaciers
melt faster than their ice can be
replaced by precipitation. Glacial
retreat limits the amount of fresh
water available on Earth. We are
experiencing the fastest rate of glacial
retreat in recorded history.