The Water Cycle Flashcards
What is the Water Cycle?
Begins in the Ocean- water heats up by the sun and evaporates
Evaporation
Condensation
Precipitation
What occurs during evaporation?
after ocean water is heating up by the sun, the particles pull together. Larger and larger until you have big liquid droplets (which leads to next step, condensation)
What occurs during Condensation?
water droplets become larger and larger until you have big liquid droplets (condensation) they fall to the earth when they are too heavy (which leads to the next step, precipitation).
What occurs during precipitation?
the water droplets come down as rain, sleet, or snow, all depends on temperature.
What happens after the water cycle and the water reaches the ground?
After Precipitation, the water reaches the ground.
Either the ground is porous and receives the water or not porous enough (or too saturated)
If the water goes into the ground, we call it infiltration
If the ground is not porous enough or too saturated, its run off.
What is infiltration?
When the earth is porous and receives water, going into the ground after precipitation.
What is Run-off?
The ground is too saturated or not porous enough to recieve water and it runs off. Run off occurs with streams and rivers. takes the water back to the ocean as lakes. Transportation for sediments, river takes it back to the ocean.
How do Rivers, lakes, and oceans, and estuaries differ in salinity levels? (amount of salt)
- the difference primarily depends on how water enters and leaves the body.
ex: big bear lake has much lower salinity level than salt in sea. Reason is because there is drainage from Big Bear lake. When water leaves through the stream, it takes the salts with you, and you don’t get a salt build up there. But the salt in the sea has no drainage. Except via evaporation but when it evaporates, it leaves salt behind.
Bodies with drainage versus bodies that only lose water through evaporation tend to have what kind of salinity level?
Bodies with drainage tend to have lower salinity levels than those that lose water only through evaporation (evaporation only takes the water not the salt).
