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The Hydrologic Cycle: The Water Cycle

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Water cycle The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, is the process by which water moves from place to place above, on, and below the Earth's surface. This is the process by which water moves around the Earth to different places. The total amount of water on the Earth is relatively unchanging, and it has remained about the same since our planet's formation. As the planet cooled, water vapor present at its formation condensed to fill the oceans and other places, like inland lakes and rivers. The distribution of water on Earth The Earth's surface is 75% water and 25% land. Of the water, 97% is salt water, a surprisingly high percentage, leaving only 3% as fresh water. Most of that - two-thirds of the fresh water on Earth - is frozen in snow and ice in glaciers, ice caps, and the like. That leaves only about 1% of all the Earth's water as liquid and fresh, making it a very scarce natural resource. If that wasn't enough, most of the liquid fresh water is stored underground in aquifers. Groundwater is just what the word sounds like: water stored under the surface of the Earth. But, like rocks or other types of matter, water on the Earth is not static. It is constantly moving around the hydrosphere, the layer of the Earth where water is present. It moves around by changing in three different processes that make up the water cycle. …show more content…

That's where most of the liquid water on the surface is, right? Evaporation is the process by which water is converted from its liquid state to the gaseous state, also known as water vapor. In other words, water leaves the Earth's surface and enters the atmosphere as a

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