ENSC 21100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Water Cycle, Ice Pellets, Surface Runoff

• School: University of Chicago
• Department: Environmental Science
• Course: ENSC 21100
• Professor: Khalidi Rashid

Document Summary

The water cycle explains the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the earth. The cycle describes the properties of water that make it undergo the various movements on the planet. The water cycle has nine main physical processes that create a continuous water movement on the planet. Intricate sequences include the transition of water from the gaseous composition of the atmosphere; through the water bodies such as oceans, lakes, rivers; passage through the soil, rocks and underground waters; and later returns into the atmosphere. Simply put, the hydrological cycle has neither a beginning nor an end, it"s an incessant process. The water cycle processes involve evaporation, condensation, precipitation, interception, infiltration, percolation, transpiration, runoff, and storage: evaporation. Evaporation takes place when water changes from its liquid state to vapor or gaseous state. A substantial heat amount is exchanged during the process, roughly 600 calories of energy per gram of water.