Have you ever wondered where does the rain and/ or snow come from? Where does the rain water go after when it drop on the ground? Is there a process that covers all of this? Rain and snow are from the clouds that formed when tiny droplets of water, dust, pollens, and other tiny particles condensed. When water falls to the Earth from the clouds, it may be absorb by the plants and trees, or go straight to rivers, lakes ,and other bodies of water. Water cycle or hydrologic cycle is the process of converting salt and/or fresh water to rain and converts it back to salt or fresh water when it precipitates. Water cycle is a water recycling process that is never ending cycle and not man-made.
First, let us start this at the surface of the Earth. When the radiation from the hot and flaring sun heats the water in the sea or in the lake, the water evaporates as vapor. Evaporation is the process of changing liquid into gaseous state. A good example of evaporation is boiling water. Although they usually melt, ice and snow coming from the glacier of mountain tops could turn into vapor, not by evaporation, but by sublimation. Maybe now you are thinking, “Ice has to melt first before it evaporates.“ The answer would be yes, because of the sub-zero temperature, dry air, less air pressure, low humidity and the addition of strong sunlight that can be found in higher altitudes, sublimation occurs more on mountain tops like at the peak of Mount Everest in the Himalayan region or in Mount Rainier in Washington state. Sublimation is different from evaporation because in sublimation solid turns into gas; however, the two process still result in forming of clouds.
Second, when the vapors get into the atmosphere, it is cooled by the freezing temperature that condense the vapors into clouds. The process of changing a gaseous substance into liquid is called condensation. Condensation takes place when a vapor make contact with a cold surface. A good example of condensation is the moisture that is coming out of the glass of a cold water on a hot sunny day or if you breathe in front of the mirror. Air currents move the clouds all over the local area or the globe. While they are drifting, the cloud particles collide with other cloud particles making, the clouds grow.
Last in the process is precipitation. Once the cloud particles are big and heavy, it will fall out of the sky as precipitation. Depending on the temperature, precipitation comes in many forms: fog, drizzle, rain, snow, hail and ice pellets. Precipitation falling in low lands and/or tropical areas are drizzle and rain while mountains and high lands receive snow and hail. There are two things that can happen when precipitation hits the ground. It is called a runoff when the precipitation is not absorb by the soil and just go straight to the body of water. For instance, the snow that falls on the mountain could accumulate as a glacier. The rainwater or the melted snow will go into the drainage basin and will be release on a river. However, if the precipitation is absorb by the ground, it is called infiltration. Once in the ground, the water can join the Earth’s ground water supply, or it would be absorb by the roots of the plants and the trees. The water that was absorb by the soil and the plants will be release as a vapor through a process called transpiration. Then, the process will start over again.
As long as there is water, it will evaporate or sublimate to become a vapor. Then, the vapor will condense to become a cloud, and it will fall back to the Earth as a precipitation. The water that we have today has been cycling from the earth to the atmosphere and back to the earth for several million years, and it would continue to cycle forever.
First, let us start this at the surface of the Earth. When the radiation from the hot and flaring sun heats the water in the sea or in the lake, the water evaporates as vapor. Evaporation is the process of changing liquid into gaseous state. A good example of evaporation is boiling water. Although they usually melt, ice and snow coming from the glacier of mountain tops could turn into vapor, not by evaporation, but by sublimation. Maybe now you are thinking, “Ice has to melt first before it evaporates.“ The answer would be yes, because of the sub-zero temperature, dry air, less air pressure, low humidity and the addition of strong sunlight that can be found in higher altitudes, sublimation occurs more on mountain tops like at the peak of Mount Everest in the Himalayan region or in Mount Rainier in Washington state. Sublimation is different from evaporation because in sublimation solid turns into gas; however, the two process still result in forming of clouds.
Second, when the vapors get into the atmosphere, it is cooled by the freezing temperature that condense the vapors into clouds. The process of changing a gaseous substance into liquid is called condensation. Condensation takes place when a vapor make contact with a cold surface. A good example of condensation is the moisture that is coming out of the glass of a cold water on a hot sunny day or if you breathe in front of the mirror. Air currents move the clouds all over the local area or the globe. While they are drifting, the cloud particles collide with other cloud particles making, the clouds grow.
Last in the process is precipitation. Once the cloud particles are big and heavy, it will fall out of the sky as precipitation. Depending on the temperature, precipitation comes in many forms: fog, drizzle, rain, snow, hail and ice pellets. Precipitation falling in low lands and/or tropical areas are drizzle and rain while mountains and high lands receive snow and hail. There are two things that can happen when precipitation hits the ground. It is called a runoff when the precipitation is not absorb by the soil and just go straight to the body of water. For instance, the snow that falls on the mountain could accumulate as a glacier. The rainwater or the melted snow will go into the drainage basin and will be release on a river. However, if the precipitation is absorb by the ground, it is called infiltration. Once in the ground, the water can join the Earth’s ground water supply, or it would be absorb by the roots of the plants and the trees. The water that was absorb by the soil and the plants will be release as a vapor through a process called transpiration. Then, the process will start over again.
As long as there is water, it will evaporate or sublimate to become a vapor. Then, the vapor will condense to become a cloud, and it will fall back to the Earth as a precipitation. The water that we have today has been cycling from the earth to the atmosphere and back to the earth for several million years, and it would continue to cycle forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment