Prepared by David Heine

1
The Hydrologic Cycle

• Prepared by David Heine
• A Science Lesson for 11th and 12th Graders

2
The Hydrologic Cycle is

• The movement and endless recycling of water
  between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, land
  surface, and underground.

3
What are the main components of the Hydrologic
Cycle?

• Precipitation
• Evaporation
• Transpiration
• Condensation

4
What is Precipitation?

• Precipitation can come in the form of rain, snow,
  sleet, hail, acid rain, and sleet. It falls from
  clouds in the sky onto the earth.

5
What is evaporation and transpiration,
condensation?
6
Need some action.

• It isnt sunny everyday, if it was, the
  hydrologic cycle wouldnt work properly. You
  need rain or some kind of precipitation to start
  the whole cycle.

7
There are four main steps which I will describe
for you.

• 1st, you need to have moisture in the atmosphere,
  so it will condense to form precipitation.
• Precipitation starts everything, in any form it
  may fall from the sky, it puts the wheels in
  motion in the hydrologic cycle.

8
Where does the precipitation go?

• When precipitation falls from the sky it can go
  in a few places
• It can be absorbed in the ground and filter into
  underground aquifers.
• It can become part of lakes, streams, etc
• It can form snow or ice on top of mountains, and
  runoff down into the valleys.

9
Evaporation

• Evaporation happens in a lot of places, here are
  a few of them..
• From lakes, streams, oceans, just bodies of
  water.
• Runoff from ice and snow, gets evaporated into
  the atmosphere.

10
Formation of Precipitation

• Precipitation forms from the combination of a few
  processes.
• Evaporation brings moisture up into the upper
  atmosphere.
• It is here where it is condensed into
  precipiation, and sublimated into precipitation.
• Sublimation is the process of turning a solid
  into gaseous form.

11
The whole picture

• This is a visual picture of how all of the
  components that I mentioned, work together to put
  this cycle in motion.

12
Rain and Snowfall in inches in Michigan over two
year span.
13
References

• http//www.iwr.msu.edu/edmodule/water/cycle.html
• http//www.und.edu/instruct/eng/fkarner/pages/cycl
  e.html
• http//www.geog.ouc.bc.ca/physgeog/contents/8b.htm
  lhttp//www.geog.ouc.bc.ca/physgeog/contents/8b.ht
  ml