Geography Quiz - The Water Cycle 02 (Answers)
Try our second KS3 Geography quiz on the water cycle. The water cycle is powered by the Sun. The Sun's heat causes water to evaporate from seas, rivers, lakes and the soil. The water vapour goes into the air. Plants also put water vapour into the air by the process of transpiration. Warm air can hold more moisture than cold air so if warm air cools down, clouds will form as the water vapour condenses to form tiny droplets. The more moisture there is in the air, the thicker the clouds. If there is a lot of moisture in the air, the small droplets will merge together and fall as precipitation. The type of precipitation depends on the temperature of the air in the cloud.
About seventy percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water. It is therefore not surprising to find that about eighty percent of the total annual precipitation falls on the seas and oceans. The water cycle is an important part of climate and weather and is also involved in reshaping the geological and other physical features of the Earth, through the processes of erosion and sedimentation.
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You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - The water cycle and river terminology
The hot air rises as a convection current. As it does, it cools. The water vapour it contains condenses and can fall as rain
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Condensation is the term that is used to describe a change of state from vapour to liquid
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There is a large surface area from which water is constantly evaporating
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Liquids including water evaporate faster when they are warmer
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The gentler the slope the longer the water has to soak in rather than move over the surface
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Water vapour (gas) changes to water droplets
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That is where most of the water vapour in the atmosphere comes from in the first place
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Water is pumped up through boreholes and desalination plants remove salt from seawater
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A tornado is a rapidly moving spiral of air
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The water can then evaporate from the leaves and go back into the atmosphere. This is one reason that rainforests have a high humidity
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