Water+Cycle

=Water Cycle = Earth is the water planet with more than two-thirds of its surface covered by water. Most of life on Earth is also primarily composed of water; our cells, and those of plants and animals are composed of approximately 70 percent water. Vast quantities of water also cycle through the Earth's atmosphere, oceans, land, and biosphere over both short and long time scales. This grand cycling of water is called the hydrologic cycle. The cycling of water shapes our weather and climate, supports plant growth, and makes life itself possible. The water cycle is dominated by the oceans, where 96 percent of the water on Earth is found and where 86 percent of global evaporation occurs.  When rain and other precipitation falls on land, some of it runs off into surface waters such as lakes and streams. Much of it, however, seeps into the ground. This process - the movement of water into and through the soil and rocks - is called infiltration. How water behaves once it is in the ground, the speed and character of infiltration, is determined by the type of soil or rock through which the water moves. It is primarily during this stage of the hydrologic cycle that water is purified. The extent to which the water is cleaned depends on the state of the environment and the amount of pollution in the water. Passing through layers of sediment and rock helps to filter pollutants out, allowing the pure water to pass through. Generally, the deeper groundwater is found, the cleaner it will be. Water that is not absorbed into the soil flows across the landscape to rivers, lakes, streams, and eventually to the oceans, as runoff. While some runoff waters originate from precipitation, others stem from melting snow or ice, and are called melt water runoff. The area where precipitation that reaches the land drains into a common body of water is called a watershed, and can range in size from a few acres to many square miles. As communities strive to improve the quality of their watersheds, education in this area continues to expand. Rather than seep into the soil or run off into surface waters, some water returns to the air in gaseous form (water vapor) through evaporation. However, of all water that returns to the atmosphere through evaporation, ocean evaporation is the most prevalent, consisting of about 80 percent of total global evaporation. For land-based evaporation, roughly half occurs on the surface area of plants and is called transpiration. These processes - evaporation and transpiration - are sometimes given a single term: evapotranspiration. The process in which water vapor is converted back into liquid is called condensation. A familiar type of condensation is the formation of dew drops on blades of grass or on the outside of a cold glass. A more important type of condensation within the hydrologic cycle takes place in the atmosphere. As water vapor moves upward in the atmosphere it cools. This process - the loss of heat through vertical movement - is called convection. The droplets formed from atmospheric condensation gather together as a result of their gravitation pull to form clouds. Depending on the temperature of the surrounding air, this cloud moisture will take either frozen or liquid form. Water in the atmosphere, after condensing and forming into clouds, returns to Earth through precipitation, which can take many forms. Although some water is transmitted directly to Earth through the condensation of ambient water vapor, it is primarily through precipitation that water moves from the atmosphere to the Earth. Water is stored for periods of time in various types of //reservoirs//. The primary reservoirs are (in order of size) the oceans, polar ice and glaciers, the atmosphere, groundwater, lakes, soils, atmosphere, rivers and streams, and the biosphere (plants and animals). There is about 50 times as much water stored in the oceans than in the next largest water reservoir, polar ice and glaciers. The amount of time that water stays in the reservoirs varies: deep groundwater can be held for up to 10,000 years, while glaciers retain their water for an average of about 40 years. At the other end of the spectrum, the retention time for rivers, soil moisture, and seasonal snow cover is typically less than 6 months.  **Reservoirs (a) **   The Hydrologic Cycle This page is a part of PhysicalGeography.net, an educational website maintained by Dr. Michael Powdery, a member of the Geography Department at Okanagan University in British Columbia. In addition to this excellent introduction with tables and diagrams, the site also includes a glossary of terms, additional readings, and links to outside resources.  US Geological Survey: The Water Cycle The Georgia state office of the USGS provides a very basic and kid-oriented site to explain various aspects of the water cycle, including following a single drop of water through the cycle's main stages.  NASA Observatorium: The Hydrologic Cycle This NASA site contains a nicely illustrated and easy-to-read guide to the water cycle.  The Groundwater Foundation Kid's Corner This site includes a vast array of information on both groundwater issues and how groundwater relates to the hydrologic cycle. The site also provides information and activities aimed at both students and educators.  The Hydrologic Cycle Online Meteorology Guide This University of Illinois WW2010 site gives a nicely illustrated presentation of the hydrologic cycle with links explaining each step. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> USGS: Science in Your Watershed The US Geological Survey provides a site to help find scientific information of watershed s across the United States. This information includes links to help locate a watershed in your area, science and information related to each watershed, and various data measurements to help learn more and understand a particular watershed. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> The Urban Water Cycle This diagram illustrates how humans affect water cycle functions in an urban city setting, and shows the unique features it encompasses, including sewage, irrigation, and water treatment.
 * **Reservoir** ||  **Size (volume of water in cubic km x 10,000,000)**  ||  **Percent of Water in Hydrologic Cycle**  ||
 * Oceans ||  1370  ||  97  ||
 * Polar Ice and Glaciers ||  29  ||  2  ||
 * Groundwater ||  9.5  ||  0.7  ||
 * Lakes ||  0.125  ||  0.01  ||
 * Soils ||  0.065  ||  0.005  ||
 * Atmosphere ||  0.013  ||  0.001  ||
 * Rivers and Streams ||  0.0017  ||  0.0001  ||
 * Biosphere ||  0.0006  ||  0.00004  ||

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">DATA & MAPS
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> EPA: Surf Your Watershed This EPA website has a clickable map of the United States to help locate information about all the watersheds in the nation, with links with additional information regarding the profile and health of each one.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">FOR THE CLASSROOM
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> The Whole Water Cycle This activity, by the University of Washington 's Department of Atmospheric Sciences K-12 pages, allows students both young and old to perform an experiment using a plant to observe the entire water cycle. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> The National Health Museum - Activities Exchange: Who Dirtied the Water? Middle and high school students will learn about water pollution and filtration in this hands-on activity modified by Carmen Hood from the SEER Water Project and Ginger Hawhee and Sandy McCreight from Omaha North High School. The activity also improves problem-solving skills by having students create their own filtration techniques and discuss possible solutions for water pollution. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"> (a) @http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/8b.html <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;">**References:** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10px;"> What is a Watershed? from Purdue University. []