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Hydrologic Cycle

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The Hydrologic Cycle

Cindy Hamilton
EVS1001-12
Everest University Seventy-five of our planet’s surfaces are water. Water makes up most of the volume of plants and animals. It is in the air as rain, steam, fog and snow. Only three percent of the earth’s water is available to us as fresh water. Fortunately, water is a renewable resource. It is recycled. It moves in perpetual motion from land to air then back to land. That’s the whole idea behind the hydrologic cycle. Evaporation, transpiration, respiration or combustion, water continues to recycle itself. The water cycle makes life possible for all creatures and plants. During evaporation, the sun evaporates water from seas and land masses and converts it to a vapor, or gas, which ascends into the atmosphere. Water vapor can condense as fog or mist, but most often it collects to form clouds. When clouds become saturated with water vapor, precipitation occurs. Water falls to the earth as a raindrop, snow and even hail, depending on the climate, season, and topography. Not all of the precipitation will reach the earth. Some will evaporate between the sky and the land and reenter the water cycle. Water that reaches the earth either runs across a land surface, falls into a body of water, or infiltrates soil to collect underground. Infiltration is the process where water is filtered through nonporous rock and soil to collect in aquifers and underground streams. Through wells and through irrigation, the water can be pumped out of the ground for our use. Water that infiltrates the soil may be taken up through the roots of plants and trees and then transpired through the leaves. During, transpiration, plants use solar energy, water and minerals to create nutrients. Water vapor is a by-product of photosynthesis. Prolific plant life explains the high humidity of the rain forest and tropical regions where

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