WATER CYCLE

Lesson 1

Prepared by: Engr. Cez Atup

 Water Cycle

The water cycle is the endless

process that connects all of the
water on Earth.

Water is one of the key

ingredients to life on Earth.

About 75 percent of our planet

is covered by water or ice.

It joins the Earth’s oceans,

land, and atmosphere. 
 According to National
Geographic

The Earth’s water cycle began about 3.8 billion

years ago when rain fell on a cooling Earth,
forming the oceans. The rain came from water
vapor that escaped the magma in the Earth’s
molten core into the atmosphere. Energy from the
sun helped power the water cycle and Earth’s
gravity kept water in the atmosphere from leaving
the planet.
When warmed by the sun,
water on the surface of
oceans and freshwater
bodies evaporates,
forming a vapor. Water
vapor rises into the
atmosphere, where it
condenses, forming clouds.
When molecules of water
vapor return to liquid or
solid form, they create
cloud droplets that can fall
back to Earth as rain or
snow.
—a process called
condensation.
Moisture can also enter the
atmosphere directly from ice
or snow. In a process called
sublimation, solid
water, such as ice or snow,
can transform directly into
water vapor without first
becoming a liquid.
Most precipitation lands in
the oceans. Precipitation that falls
onto land flows into rivers,
streams, and lakes. Some of it
seeps into the soil where it is held
underground as groundwater. The
precipitation then becomes run-off
or ground water, and works its
way over various timescales back
into the surface reservoirs.
Transpiration
This is the discharge of water
vapor from the leaves of plants
into the atmosphere. It is a
process that the eye cannot see,
even though the amounts of
moisture involved it significant.
 Runoff
Runoff is precipitation that did
not get (infiltrated) absorbed
into the soil, or did not
evaporate, and therefore, made
its way from the ground surface
into places that water collect.

Runoff causes erosion, and

also carry chemicals and
substances on the ground
surface along to the rivers
where the water ends up.
Infiltration happens when
water soaks into the soil from the
ground level. It moves
underground and moves between
the soil and rocks. Some of the
water will be soaked up by roots to
help plants grow.
 “The water cycle is essentially a closed system,
meaning that the volume of water that is in the
hydrosphere today is the same amount of water
that has always been present in the Earth system.”
Water Cycle Animation
HOW IS CLIMATE
CHANGE IMPACTING 

THE WATER CYCLE?
 CLOUD SEEDING

Cloud seeding is the process of spreading

either dry ice, or more commonly, silver
iodide aerosols, into the upper part of
clouds to try to stimulate the precipitation
process and form rain.
 CLOUD SEEDING

Rainfall occurs when supercooled droplets of

water – those that are still liquid but are at a
temperature below the usual freezing point
of zero centigrade – form ice crystals. Now
too heavy to remain suspend in the air, these
then fall, often melting on their way down to
form rain.