Science: The Water Cycle

The water cycle is a cycle for a reason – it repeats over and over again. The water cycle describes the different stages that water goes through – from evaporation to reaccumalation. Now, let’s take a look at the different stages that make up the water cycle:

Stage 1 – Evaporation: Is the process in which the sun heats up the water until eventually it starts to evaporate into the air as steam or water vapor. It travels higher and higher until it eventually reached the next stage of the water cycle which would be…

Stage 1b – Transpiration: Like humans perspire, plants transpire. When plants transpire they are giving out water from their leaves which comes out in the form of water vapor that travels up into the atmosphere.

Stage 2 – Condensation: Is the process in which the water vapor/steam goes so high up in the air that due to the change of temperature (getting colder) as a result of being so high in the atmosphere makes the vapor/steam  begin to condensate or in other words, change back into liquid, thereby forming clouds.

Stage 3 – Precipitation: Is the 3rd process in which the clouds get so crowded with water particles that it cannot hold anymore and eventually cannot hold them in anymore and the water rains back to Earth in the form of rain, snow or hail.

Stage 4 – Reaccumalation: Is the final process in which the water that has rained down on Earth makes it’s way back to oceans, rivers, etc. to begin the process once again. Some of the water that has come back to Earth might rain directly into rivers and oceans while the rest that have rained onto the land will either soak up and become part of the ground water that plants and animals use to drink or it could run over the soil and make it’s way back to the oceans,rivers, etc. where it begins the cycle from the beginning once again.

Those are the 4 main stages of the water cycle in Science. I hope this article has helped you learn about and understand the water cycle.