WATER AND IT's CYCLE

Water  covering approximately 70 percent of our home planet, both in liqiuid and frozen forms. Water is necessary to sustaining life on earth. It is a transparent fluid which forms the world’s streams,lakes, oceans and rain.   Only 2,5 percent of the earth’s water is fresh water and 98,8 percent of the water is in ice and groundwater. Less than 0,3 percent of all fresh water is in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere.

The water has it’s cycle, it circulates from the land  and sea to the sky and back again.

The sun’s heat provides energy to evaporate water from the earth’s surface (oceans, lakes, rivers, etc). Plants also lose water to the air (this is called transpiration). The water vapor eventually condenses, forming tiny droplets in clouds. And when the clouds meet cool air over land, precipitation is triggered  and water returns to the land or sea. Some of the prepicitation soaks into the ground. Some of the underground water is trapped between rocks or clay layers, this is called ground water.

And if the atmosphere is cold enough, the form of precipitation changes from rain to snow dan sleet.

Some rain or melted snow flows back in to water bodies likes rivers, lakes, streams and ocean.

The water cycle happens to be a simple cycle, yet involves a lot of processes, there are:

EVAPORATION

When the heat of the sun causes water to turn to water vapor. It is known as evaporation.

CONDENSATION

As the watervapor moves higher in the atmosphere, it cools down due to a decreases in the temperature. On cooling the water vapor condenses to form tiny droplets of water.

PRECIPITATION

The tiny droplets of water that are formed as a result of condensation keep on accumulating in the clouds, then the water is released from them in the form of rain.

RUN OFF

The water that falls back to the surface of the earth either stays on the surface of the earth or flows off the surface into water bodies like rivers, lakes, ocean, etc.

TRANSPIRATION

Plants absorb water from the soil and transport it to the leaves via the stem. When the water evaporates from the leaves and stem, it is termed as transpiration.

INFILTRATION

When the water on the surface of the earth seeps down the ground, it is called infiltration.