Water Cycle & Watersheds

1. Water Cycle & Watersheds

4. Evaporation • Heat energy from the sun causes water in puddles, streams, rivers, seas or lakes to change from a liquid to a water vapor. • The vapor rises into the air and collects in clouds.  

5. Condensation • Water vapor collects in clouds. As the clouds cool the water vapor condenses into water drops.

6. Precipitation • Water falls to the earth from clouds- mainly as rain, but sometimes as snow, sleet, or hail.

7. Transpiration • Transpiration is the process by which plants lose water out of their leaves.  • Transpiration gives evaporation a bit of a hand in getting the water vapor back up into the air.

8. Condensation The movement through plants The Clouds form Transpiration Precipitation The rain falls Evaporation The vapor rises

9. What is a watershed? A watershed is an area of land from which all runoff drains, or 'sheds' to the same river, lake, or other body of water. Runoff-Water travels downhill and enters into rivers and lakes.

11. Everyone lives in a watershed! Your own backyard is part of a watershed. You don’t need to visit the Grand Canyon to see a watershed. You’re already in one!

12. The System of Watersheds Each is part of a larger picture or mosaic. Watersheds are like pieces of a puzzle:

13. A Nested System Larger watersheds contain smaller watersheds, which contain even smaller ones.

14. The largest watershed in the United States is known as the: The Mississippi River Watershed

15. WATERSHED “ADDRESSES” Just as our homes have street addresses, our neighborhood watersheds have environmental addresses.

16. Where does our water come from? Condensation Precipitation Snowmelt Springs Infiltration into the ground All of our freshwater starts as precipitation, which moves continually through the hydrologic cycle. Streams and rivers Lakes Evaporation Aquifers Ocean Storage Groundwater flow to oceans

17. Surface water & ground water Ground Water- flows underground as springs or underground rivers. Water underground is stored in an aquifer. Surface Water- water on the surface of the earth

18. Aquifer: an underground body of saturated rockor sediment through which water can move easily • Surface water and ground water form an interconnected system- surface water recharges aquifers, while ground water also flows up into surface water bodies (lakes, rivers, etc). Aquifers

19. Water Table-The water table is the underground depth at which point the ground is totally saturated with water. • Much of the Earth's water is actually locked up underground! • When underground water deposits are large enough to be considered usable, they are known as aquifers. What is a Water Table?

20. The water table could also be thought of as the top “line” of the aquifer. Water Table