Are you really drinking the same water as the caveman?
Water Cycle
 Water is always on the move.
Rain falling where you live
may have been water in the
ocean just days before. And
the water you see in a river or
stream may have been snow
on a high mountaintop.
 The water cycle is also known
as the hydrologic cycle.
 Fun Fact:

Hydro is Latin for water
Where is water?
 Water can be in the
atmosphere, on the land, in
the ocean, and even
underground. It is recycled
over and over through the
water cycle.
 In the cycle, water changes
state between liquid, solid
(ice), and gas (water
vapor).
Stage 1 : Evaporation
 Evaporation is the change
from liquid to vapor
form.
 Evaporation turns the
water that is on the
surface of oceans, rivers,
& lakes into water vapor
using energy from the
sun.
 What type of energy
transfer is taking place?
Stage 1 : Transpiration
 When water evaporates
from plants it is a process
called transpiration.
 Plants lose water through
their stems, leaves, and
roots.
 A fully grown tree may lose
several hundred gallons of
water through its leaves on
a hot, dry day.
Stage 2: Condensation
 Condensation is the process
by which water vapor in the
air is changed into liquid
water.
 The water vapor rises in the
atmosphere and cools,
forming tiny water droplets by
a process called condensation.
 Those water droplets make up
clouds.
Stage 3: Precipitation
 Those water droplets that CONDENSE make up
clouds. If those tiny water droplets combine with
each other they grow larger and eventually
become too heavy to stay in the air. Then they fall
to the ground as rain, snow, and other types of
precipitation.
Stage 3: Precipitation
 Precipitation is water
released from clouds
in the form of rain,
freezing rain, sleet,
snow, or hail. It is the
primary way water is
delivered from the
atmosphere to the
Earth.
Did you know…
 How many gallons of water fall when 1 inch (2.5 cm)
of rain falls on 1 acre of land?
 27,154 gallons of water!
 Rain drops are not tear shaped.
 They start out in a ball shape, but as they fall they meet with air
resistance, which starts to flatten out the drop until at about 2-3
mm in diameter the bottom is quite flat with an indention in the
middle - much like a hamburger bun. When raindrops reach about
4-5 mm, things really fall apart. At this size, the indentation in the
bottom greatly expands forming something like a parachute with
two smaller droplets at the bottoms. The parachute doesn't last
long, though, and the large drop breaks up into smaller drops.
Wow! That is amazing!
 The world's record for average-annual rainfall belongs
to Mt. Waialeale, Hawaii, where it averages about 450
inches (38 ft) per year.
 The world’s recorded for least amount of rain goes to
Antofagasta Region, Atacama Desert, Chile at 0 in one
year!
 It takes 6 gallons of water to grow the potatoes for your
order of fries!
 For your hamburger it takes 1300 gallons of water to
produce everything needed!
Stage 4: Runoff
 The variety of ways by
which water moves
across the land.
 As it flows, the water
may seep into the
ground, evaporate into
the air, become stored in
lakes or reservoirs, or be
extracted for agricultural
or other human uses.
Stage 4: Infiltration
 Some of the
precipitation seeps into
the ground and becomes
a part of the
groundwater.
 That seepage is called
infiltration.
Stage 5: Accumulation
 The process in which water
pools in large bodies (like
oceans, seas and lakes) Most of
the water on Earth is in the
Ocean.
 Did you know?
 Water stays in certain places
longer than others. A drop of water
may spend over 3,000 years in the
ocean before moving on to another
part of the water cycle while a drop
of water spends an average of just
eight days in the atmosphere before
falling back to Earth.