The Water Cycle

The water cycle is vast in its intricacies but can be simplified to illustrate a basic concept of its mechanism. It’s important to know that the water cycle depends on water’s unique facility to occur naturally in all three physical states (liquid, gas, solid) on earth. The cycle is also greatly influenced by water’s exceptional thermal properties, adhesive and cohesive properties, and ability to act as the universal solvent of most compounds on earth. That said it’s most useful to describe the water cycle by tracing one small group of water molecules and assuming for all intents and purposes that those few molecules never go too far from each other. So, let’s start with some water in a lake. The water on the surface of the lake is exposed to high heat and evaporates. The previously liquid water then travels as a gas into the atmosphere. As the warm water vapor rises it coalesces into clouds. There the water undergoes adiabadic cooling and can no longer exist in the form of vapor. The now cooled water molecules fall in the form of rain, or some other precipitation and flow into the lake where they originated. The water’s journey has been cyclic, and on its way has influenced weather, plant growth, animal populations, pollution distribution, and global climate.

The end!