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The Water Cycle

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/mwater.htm
l

Where is Earths Water?

1. What does it mean that the Earth is a closed system, like a terrarium?
Water is a never ending constant cycle.
2. How does water the water amount from millions of years ago compare to todays
water amount?
Much of the water has melted and its more polluted
3.Out of all the water on Earth, what percentage is usable by humans?
2.5
4. Of the water usable by humans, where is the largest percentage of that water found?
Glaciers and ice caps
5.Complete the following diagram:
3.0%

2.5
%

0.26

1.2%

0.49%

30.1

2.6%

96.5%
68.7%

2.8%

6. Of the freshwater, where is most of the water tied up?

In glaciers and permanent ice
7. Of the remaining freshwater, where is the largest majority of that water found?
In the ground as groundwater
8. What percentage of freshwater is found as surface water?
1.2%
9. Compare the amount of freshwater to the amount of saltwater in cubic kilometers:
- Freshwater: 10,530,000
- Saltwater: 12,870,000

How Much Water Is There?

1. How much of the Earths surface is covered by water?
71%
2. Besides the ocean, where else does water exist?
Air, rivers, lakes, icecaps, glaciers, and the ground
3. Where does most of the water people and other life on Earth come from?
Streams, rivers, lakes, groundwater
4. Compare the amount of groundwater to surface water:
Ground water has a smaller percentage than surface water:
- surface water has 96.554
- ground water has 1.69
5. What term is used for the storage place of groundwater?
Aquifers
6. How is groundwater recharged?
Ground water is recharged through aquifers. the water is stored there until
someone uses it and is refilled again by flowing run off
7. How does groundwater recharge rivers?
Ground water recharges rivers by flowing underground and into the body of water,
so that the river isnt run dry by humans
8. In 2005, how much surface water did the United States use?
275 billion gallons per day
9. In the same time period, how much groundwater did people use?
79.3 billion gallons per day

The Water Cycle

What is another term used for the water cycle?
Hydrologic Cycle
Atmosphere
1. Which two processes changes liquid water into vapor which then rises into the atmosphere?
Evaporation and sublimation
2. Which process produces the majority of the vapor in the atmosphere?
Evaporation
3. What percentage of vapor does transpiration add to the atmosphere?
10%
4. If all the water in the atmosphere rained down and covered the Earth, how deep would it be?
2.5cm
Condensation
1. Define condensation:
The gas in the in the clouds getting heavier and forming water droplets
2. Why is condensation an important part of the water cycle?
It is the step right before precipitation, without it precipitation wouldnt occur and we would get
none of the water that we use back
3. Besides clouds, what else can happen due to condensation?
Due to condensation rain and ground level fogs is able to occur
Evaporation

1. Define evaporation:
Water being heated into a gas and lifting up into the clouds
2. Where does most of the evaporated water come from?
The ocean
3. What is necessary in order for evaporation to occur?
Heat on a water source
4. What percentage of the water evaporated from the ocean is transported over land and falls as
precipitation?
10%
5. How long does an evaporated water molecule stay in the air?
10 days up in the air

Evapotranspiration
1. According to this website, define evapotranspiration: (beneath the diagram)
Evapotranspiration is the sum of evaporation from the land surface and transpiration from
plants
2. Define transpiration:
The process where moisture is carried through plants from roots to small pores on the
underside of leave, where it changes to vapor and its released to the atmosphere
3. How much water in the atmosphere is due to transpiration?
10%
4. How does a plant transpire?
Evaporation through plant leaves
5. How much can an oak tree transpire during one day?
40 thousand gallons
Freshwater Storage
1. What bodies of water does surface water include?
Ground water is important because it is responsible for recharging rivers, streams, and lakes so
they dont end up running dry and people also depend on ground water for drinking water and
agriculture.
2. What processes are included in inflows to surface water?
Precipitation, run off, ground water seepage, and tributary inflows
3. What processes are included in outflows of surface water?
Evaporation, withdrawals from people, and movement of water into groundwater
4. Groundwater Discharge
1. Describe why groundwater is an important part of the water cycle: groundwater is an important
source of fresh water for us. It supplies us with clean drinking water to drink and water plants
2. Where is the majority of groundwater found?
In aquifers
3. When are aquifers formed?
In spaces between soil and rock particles, at a certain point under the surface, the area between
the soil and rock particles get filled with water, making an aquifer
4. Explain how water becomes part of the groundwater:
When it rains the water penetrates the ground and flows into the water table it begins to move
vertically or horizontally
5. What percentage of freshwater is groundwater?
30.1%
Groundwater Storage
1. Where does most of the water in groundwater come from?
Precipitation
2. Describe the difference between the saturated zone and the unsaturated zone:
- Unsaturated: upper layer, water doesnt stay here
- Saturated: lower layer, water flows here
3. What is the water table?
The first layer of water in the saturated layer
4. To what level would you have to dig to find water?
You would have to dig to the water table to find water

4. Label the diagram below:

Precipitatio
n
Soil Zone
Recharge to water
table
Water
Unsaturated
Table
zone
Saturated Zone below the
water table

Ice, Snow, and Glaciers

1. What is meat by storage, in relation to the water cycle?
Much more water is in storage than going through the water cycle
2. Where is the 90% of Earths ice mass found?
Antarctica
3. Where is the rest of it found?
Greenland
4. What majority of freshwater is held in ice caps and glaciers?
68.7%
Infiltration
1. What is happening to water during infiltration?
The water is going through the soil
2. What happens to water that infiltrates the shallow soil layer?
It moves vertically and horizontally through the ground
3. What happens to the water that infiltrates deeper?
It recharges the ground aquifers
4. What is the greatest factor affecting infiltration?
The amount and characteristics of precipitation
5. What happens to rain, once the soil is saturated?
This turns into surface run off because the soil is holding too much water
Oceans
1. What percentage of water is found in the ocean?
96.5%
2. What percentage of evaporated water comes from the ocean?
90%

Precipitation
1. What forms of water can precipitation take?
Rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow, and hail
2. How does most precipitation fall?
As rain
3. What has to happen before water can fall as precipitation?
Evaporation and condensation
4. How do water droplets grow?
As it grows the bottom of the water droplet flattens out
5. Draw how raindrops actually look up to 3 mm:

Snowmelt Runoff
1. In what type of climates does snowmelt runoff play a significant role in streamflow?
Cold climates
2. What percentage of freshwater in the western states comes from snowmelt runoff?
75%
Springs
1. What are springs a result of?
It results from an aquifer being filled to the point that the water overflows onto the land surface
Streamflow
1. How does USGS define streamflow?
Refers to the amount of water flowing in a river
2. What is a stream?
Flowing body of water
3. Why do rivers exist?
We use it for drinking water, for water irrigation, to wash, to flush away waste, and to produce
electricity
4. Where does water generally seek to flow?
Water is seeking the center of the earth
5. What percentage of freshwater is found in rivers?
0.3
Sublimation
1. What is sublimation?
The conversion between the solid and the gaseous phases of matter with no intermediate liquid
stage
2. What is sublimation, in relation to the water cycle?
Describes the process of snow and ice changing into water vapor in the air without first melting into
water

3. When does sublimation occur?

When you drop dry ice in water
4. Where on Earth does sublimation happen a lot?
In climates with relatively low humidity and dry winds, or higher altitudes
5. What is a Chinook Wind and where do they occur?
The wind vaporizes snow before it gets the chance to melt. they occur when westerly winds
from the Pacific passes over the Rocky Mountains, the winds go down from the mountains onto
high plains, they heat up.

Surface Runoff
1. What is surface runoff?
What running down a slope on the ground
2. When does runoff occur?
When it has recently rained or snow or ice from mountains melt

Place the letter from the diagram above in the space provided next to its associated term in
the lists below:
[I]
[K]
[E]
[D]
[C]
[M]
[L]
[A]
[Q]

Condensation
Evapotranspiration
Groundwater discharge
Infiltration
Snowmelt runoff to streams
Streamflow
Surface runoff
Water storage in ice and snow
Desublimation [R] Plant uptake

[H]
[O]
[F]
[B]
[N]
[P]
[J]
[G]

Evaporation
Freshwater storage
Groundwater storage
Precipitation
Spring
Sublimation
Water storage in the atmosphere
Water storage in oceans