Water Cycle Basics
The continuous movement of water between Earth’s surface and its atmosphere.
What is the Water Cycle?
The three states of water on Earth.
What is solid, liquid, and gas?
Percentage of Earth’s water that is saltwater.
What is 97%?
Another name for rain, sleet, snow, or hail
What is precipitation?
Another word for surface water moving downhill after rainfall
What is runoff?
When soil becomes saturated during rainfall, excess water moves downslope into rivers, lakes, and streams.
What is Run Off?
Frozen water is naturally found here on Earth.
What are the polar ice caps and glaciers?
Percentage of Earth’s water that is drinkable (liquid) freshwater.
What is 1%?
The change from a gas to a liquid
What is condensation?
What do scientists call water soaking into soil and rock?
What is infiltration?
The process where heat from the Sun changes ocean water into vapor
What is Evaporation?
The only substance that exists as a solid, liquid, and gas in Earth’s atmosphere.
What is water?
Amount of Earth’s surface covered with water.
What is 70%?
This is needed for clouds to form
What is a cold temperature?
These two forces power the water cycle.
What is the sun (or heat) and gravity?
When water evaporates from plants
What is transpiration?
Sheldon noticed the skating pond was the same location as the summer fishing pond. What explains this?
What is water changes state depending on temperature?
An example of saltwater
What is an Ocean?
Why do we see rain fall after clouds get heavy with water droplets?
What is gravity pulls the water down as precipitation?
The element that makes saltwater different from freshwater.
What is sodium chloride?
The Sun’s role in the water cycle.
What is providing heat energy?
This object in the sky is made of tiny water droplets
What are clouds?
An example of liquid freshwater
What is surface water (rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, etc.) or groundwater?
Water from plants entering the atmosphere
What is transpiration?
This is the scientific name for the water cycle
What is the hydrological cycle?