Earth's Spheres
Which sphere includes all liquid, solid, and gaseous water on Earth?
What is the Hydrosphere?
Name the three physical states of water in Earth's systems.
What are Solid, Liquid, and Gas?
The primary source of energy that drives the entire global water cycle.
What is The Sun (Solar Energy)?
A suspended mass of microscopic water droplets or ice crystals high in the air.
What is a Cloud?
This sphere includes all living organisms on Earth, from trees to bacteria.
What is the Biosphere?
True or False: The atmosphere and the hydrosphere overlap.
What is True? (Water vapor and clouds exist in the atmosphere)
This form is taken by water when it exists as a gas in the atmosphere.
What is Water Vapor?
Thermal energy is absorbed by water during this major phase change in the water cycle.
What is Evaporation (or Transpiration)?
Clouds form when this gas rises, cools, and condenses.
What is Water Vapor?
Over long periods of time, this happens to the total amount of water on Earth as it moves through the cycle.
What is It stays relatively constant?
Water leaves plant life in the biosphere and enters the atmosphere through this process.
What is Transpiration?
The change of liquid into a gas specifically at the liquid's surface.
What is Evaporation?
Solar energy causes evaporation by doing this to water molecules at a microscopic level.
What is Breaking the bonds between water molecules?
This happens to warm air as it rises higher into the atmosphere.
What is It cools down and contracts?
Liquid water turning into ice in polar regions is an example of this phase change.
What is Freezing?
Upward vertical arrows on a water cycle diagram show water moving into this Earth system.
What is the Atmosphere?
This process is the direct physical opposite of evaporation.
What is Condensation?
This happens to the speed and spacing of water molecules as they absorb heat.
What is They move faster and spread farther apart?
A cloud that forms directly at or near Earth's surface.
What is Fog?
Why puddles disappear faster on a hot, sunny day than on a cool, cloudy day.
What is Increased thermal energy accelerates the rate of evaporation?
Groundwater stored inside rock layers represents an interaction between which two spheres?
What are the Hydrosphere and Geosphere?
What happens to water vapor when it loses thermal energy?
What is It condenses?
When water vapor cools and condenses, this happens to its thermal energy.
What is It is released into the surrounding air?
Why water vapor condenses as it rises higher into the troposphere.
What is Temperatures decrease with altitude?
Rain falling on land and seeping into soil is an interaction moving water from which sphere to which sphere?
What is Hydrosphere to Geosphere?