What type of cycle is water?
The water cycle is often taught as a simple circular cycle of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.
What is distribution in the water cycle?
Precipitation that falls to the Earth is distributed in four main ways: some is returned to the atmosphere by evaporation, some may be intercepted by vegetation and then evaporated from the surface of leaves, some percolates into the soil by infiltration, and the remainder flows directly as surface runoff into the sea.
Does the water cycle affect other cycles?
The water cycle drives other cycles. The water cycle is important in itself, and patterns of water cycling and rainfall have major effects on Earth’s ecosystems. However, rainfall and surface runoff also play important roles in the cycling of various elements.
Where does the water cycle take place on the Earth?
A Multi-Phased Journey. The water, or hydrologic, cycle describes the pilgrimage of water as water molecules make their way from the Earth’s surface to the atmosphere and back again, in some cases to below the surface.
How does the water cycle affect the environment?
Through the water cycle, heat is exchanged and temperatures fluctuate. As water evaporates, it absorbs energy and cools the local environment. When it condenses, it releases energy, heating up the local area. In addition, the water cycle steps have also has an effect on the geography of Earth.
How is the water cycle an agent of change?
Thus, water does not respond passively to physical processes governing Earth: it is a dynamic agent whose influence is central to processes that produced today’s world and that will affect its evolution into the future. Human intervention in the water cycle alters water’s dynamic role on the planet.
How is precipitation a part of the water cycle?
Precipitation describes any liquid or solid water that falls to Earth as a result of those two processes. It includes rain, hail, snow, sleet and a bunch more. Precipitation is one of many ways that water is cycled from the atmosphere to the Earth or Ocean.