7.2 Water Cycle

You have become a water droplet. You start and end in the ocean. You go through all of these stages below. Put them in the best order.

1. ocean
2. groundwater storage
3. vents
4. infiltration
5. ocean
6. condensation
7. runoff
8. evaporation
9. precipitation
10. river

Why does condensation happen?

Water is coming into the area faster than it leaves, so it backs up, forming a ______

When you breathe, you participate in the water cycle.

What is one easy way to see evidence of transpiration?

The last ice age was about ________________ years ago.

During the last ice age, there was so much liquid water stored in the glaciers that the ocean was _______________ feet lower than they are today.

If all land ice melted today the seas would rise about _______ feet

Do rivers rise after snow fall?

Why does water "seepe" into the ground?

Water is always moving.

There is one creature on Earth that does have a very large impact on the water cycle—human beings.

What have humans done to change the natural water cycle?

What is recharged by water going into the ground?

Where would you find a large number of springs?

What kind of rocks make for good spring rocks?

The force behind runoff is ______________

Plants have roots that pull in the groundwater and send it up, via ______________, to the rest of the plant.

Explain one way that water becomes 'salty' before passing through into the ocean.

In Atlanta, Ga, USA it rains about 50 inches/year. Over a 100 square mile (10 miles by 10 miles) area, that means __________ billion gallons of water falls, with much of it soaking into the ground to become groundwater.

Fog forms when _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ (next to the ground) and some of the water vapor condenses out into liquid water droplets.

A _____ is the area of land where all of the precipitation that falls in it drains off and goes to the same point in a river.

Ocean currents move massive amounts of water throughout the oceans, and the movement of water affects everything from the climate to the environments where life thrives both in the oceans and on the continents. The ____ _____ in the Atlantic Ocean, for example, moves warmer water from the Gulf of Mexico northward and eastward, ending up on the coasts of northern Europe.

The real 'boss' of the water cycle is _____________

The average cumulus cloud 0.62 miles on a side will weigh about _____________ pounds