Hydrological Cycle Earth Systems

Three key actions in the hydrologocal cycle:

EvaporationEvaporation: Water evaporates from oceans, lakes and rivers. Oceans account for 97% of the earth's water, so the majority (about 86%) of evaporation occurs from them.

Transpiration: Water in the soil is also absorbed by tree roots and eventually, through transpiration, is released from the leaves into the atmosphere as water vapor.

Condensation in clouds Condensation: As water vapor rises, it cools in the upper atmosphere and condenses into moisture droplets to form clouds. These moisture droplets are a microscopic .002 cm in diameter—one raindrop is made of a million or more moisture droplets!

Tall cloud
Large clouds, such as towering cumulonimbus clouds, can keep droplets aloft longer, giving the droplets more chances to collide with other dropsÑthus producing larger raindrops!

PrecipitationPrecipitation: As moisture droplets continue to cool, they coalesce around condensation nuclei (dust, soot, etc.) to form water droplets, or raindrops. The largest of the raindrops fall, colliding and merging with other droplets to form even larger drops. Gradually, the drops become too heavy for the cloud's air circulation to keep them aloft, and rainfall begins.

How does it all fit together?
<IMG SRC="IMG SRC="images/hydro_alt.jpg" WIDTH=350 HEIGHT=261 alt="The hydrological cycle" BORDER=0 vspace="3" hspace="0">
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What happens if you change one of the key actions?Next

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