"Tions" of the Water Cycle
Water falling from clouds to the earth in the form of rain, snow, sleet, hail, or graupel
What is precipitation?
Transpiration
The process where plants release water vapor into the air through small pores called stomata.
All of the water on the planet in the atmosphere, under ground, in glaciers, and oceans.
What is the hydrosphere?
Liquid water falling from the sky
What is rain?
In this state, the molecules of the substance are packed so tightly together that they cannot move freely; the molecules will vibrate in place.
What is a solid?
Water that exists beneath the soil.
What is Ground Water?
The body of water that results from building a dam
What is a reservoir?
The process where a liquid transforms into a gas (vapor)
What is evaporation?
Collection
The process where precipitation falls to the earth and gathers in oceans, lakes, rivers, streams, and aquifers.
The protective layer of gases surrounding the earth and held in place by gravity.
What is the atmosphere?
When water vapor in the atmosphere crystallizes and falls to the earth
What is snow?
In this state, the molecules spread apart and move in a random fashion .
What is gas?
A water table
What is the top most section of ground water?
Waste water
Water that has been contaminated by human activities (household, industrial, agricultural)
The phase change where vapor (a gas) cools and turns into a liquid
What is condensation?
Sublimation
The phase change where a solid changes to a gas (vapor) without first becoming a liquid (melting) (Example: dry ice to gas)
The solid inorganic parts of the earth from the surface all of the way down to the core.
What is the geosphere?
Pellets of frozen rain which rall to the earth
What is hail?
This state of matter has a definite volume but no fixed shape; it will take the shape of it's container.
What is liquid?
A series of events that are repeated over and over again
What is a cycle?
To remove the salt from a collection of water
What is desalinate?
The process of water on the ground entering the soil.
What is infiltration?
Deposition
The phase change were a vapor (gas) changes to a solid without first condensing into a liquid (Example: water vapor to frost)
All of the ecosystems and living organisms on the earth (connecting all other "spheres")
What is the biosphere?
Ice pellets mixed with rain or snow that fall to the earth
What is sleet?
The only state that liquid cannot take on
What is plasma?
The two forces that are necessary for water to go through the water cycle
What are heat and gravity?
The amount of water vapor present in the atmosphere
What is humidity?
The slow downward movement of water through soil and rock.
What is percolation?
Transportation
The movement of water through the atmosphere by wind.
All parts of the earth's surface where water exists in solid form (glaciers, snow, ice sheets, permafrost)
What is the Cryosphere?
Snow pellets that fall to the earth
What is Graupel?
Sometimes called a phase.
What is a state of matter?
A land area that channels runoff into collection areas
What is a watershed?
This threatens the stability of the water cycle by causing glacier and permafrost melt
What is global warming?