The Water Cycle
The process when liquid water changes into water vapor because of the Sun's heat.
What is evaporation?
The largest body of water on Earth, covering about 70% of the planet's surface.
What is the ocean?
Water found in rivers, lakes, streams, and groundwater — not salty.
What is freshwater?
When fertilizers wash into water, this overgrowth of algae can occur.
What is an algal bloom?
The hydrosphere interacts with this layer to regulate weather and temperature.
What is the atmosphere?
When water vapor cools and turns back into tiny liquid droplets forming clouds.
What is condensation?
These movements of ocean water are caused by wind, temperature, and Earth's rotation.
What are ocean currents?
This underground layer of water-bearing rock or sediment supplies wells and springs.
What is an aquifer?
This term describes pollution that comes from a single, identifiable source like a factory pipe.
What is point source pollution?
This phenomenon causes sea levels to rise as global temperatures increase.
What is thermal expansion?
Rain, snow, sleet, or hail that falls from clouds back to Earth.
What is precipitation?
This major ocean current brings warm water from the Gulf of Mexico to the North Atlantic.
What is the Gulf Stream?
The area of land where all surface water drains into the same body of water.
What is a watershed?
The process of removing salt from seawater to make it drinkable.
What is desalination?
The process where oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making them more acidic.
What is ocean acidification?
The process where water soaks into the ground and moves through soil and rock layers.
What is infiltration?
The measure of dissolved salts in seawater, averaging about 3.5% in most oceans.
What is salinity?
This process occurs when too much groundwater is pumped out, causing the land surface to sink.
What is land subsidence?
This occurs when groundwater is contaminated with saltwater due to excessive pumping.
What is saltwater intrusion?
This large-scale ocean circulation pattern helps regulate Earth's climate by moving heat around the globe.
What is the thermohaline circulation?
The process where plants release water vapor through their leaves into the atmosphere.
What is transpiration?
This phenomenon occurs when warm surface water in the Pacific Ocean shifts eastward, affecting global weather patterns.
What is El Niño?
This boundary marks the depth below which the ground is completely saturated with water.
What is the water table?
This international agreement aims to protect the marine environment from pollution from ships.
What is MARPOL (International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships)?
This term describes the long-term alteration of temperature and typical weather patterns in a place.
What is climate change?