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Explain How The Path A Water Molecule Travels Through The Hydrologic Cycle

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1. Describe the path a water molecule takes as it travels through the hydrologic cycle. The hydrological cycle is a never-ending cycle that keeps us alive. The path begins with: Evaporation- when water evaporates in the form of water vapor by the heat of the sun and enters the air. Transpiration- Water enters the air when plants "breathe" in a process known as transpiration. Condensation- the process which water vapor in the air turns into liquid and forms clouds. Rain drops often form when water vapor comes in contact with dust in the air. Clouds- Clouds are a mass of water or ice droplets in the air. An example of a cloud next to the earth's surface is fog. Precipitation- When water from clouds falls back to earth as snow, …show more content…

The oceans cover about 71 percent of the Earth which makes the ocean a key factor in storing and transferring heat energy around the world. Inconsistency in the heating of the earth gives rise to global wind patterns. Since the wind patterns are constant, the winds create steady movements in the water known as currents. When the air blows across the surface of a body of water, the water begins to move from small waves to larger waves. When the water starts to move it is subject to the Coriolis Effect (The Coriolis Effect, the pattern of the wind movement and the arrangement of landmasses are responsible for the large-scale patterns of wind- driven surface currents in the ocean) and begins to bend redirecting the water to the right of the direction of the wind in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. Each hemisphere of an ocean has its very own gyre, a circular motion of water. In the northern hemisphere the gyres turn clockwise and in the southern hemisphere it turns counterclockwise. The current that runs south along the coast is the California Current and the current in the Gulf of Alaska is the Alaskan

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