How does groundwater enter the water cycle?
The water falls to the earth as precipitation, such as rain, hail, sleet, and snow. When precipitation reaches the earth’s surface, some of it will flow along the surface of the land and enter surface water like lakes, streams, and rivers, as runoff. This movement of water underground is called groundwater flow.
What stage of the water cycle provides water to lakes?
Evaporation
Step 1: Evaporation Water absorbs heat energy from the sun and turns into vapors. Water bodies like the oceans, the seas, the lakes and the river bodies are the main source of evaporation.
How does groundwater go into a lake?
Groundwater is a part of the natural water cycle (check out our interactive water cycle diagram). Some part of the precipitation that lands on the ground surface infiltrates into the subsurface. Water in the saturated groundwater system moves slowly and may eventually discharge into streams, lakes, and oceans.
What part of the water cycle is groundwater?
hydrologic cycle
Water in the atmosphere condenses into rain. Some of the rain recharges the groundwater, and the cycle keeps repeating. Groundwater, in other words, is part of the hydrologic cycle. Groundwater and surface water are interconnected; groundwater becomes surface water when it discharges to surface water bodies.
What is the process of water cycle?
The water cycle consists of three major processes: evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. Evaporation is the process of a liquid’s surface changing to a gas. In the water cycle, liquid water (in the ocean, lakes, or rivers) evaporates and becomes water vapor.
What is the driving force of water cycle?
The sun’s energy is the driving force behind the water cycle. The sun heats up water on land and in the oceans, lakes, and seas. The water changes from liquid to vapor in a process called evaporation. The water vapor cools and in a process called condensation forms droplets in the atmosphere.
What is the process called when water moves from plants into the air?
transpiration
Also, water also makes its way into the atmosphere via a process called transpiration in which plants release water into the air from their leaves that was pulled up from the soil through roots. Collectively, the water evaporated from the land and from plants is called evapotranspiration.
Where does the water in the water cycle come from?
Related Science. Freshwater on the land surface is a vital part of the water cycle for everyday human life. On the landscape, freshwater is stored in rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and creeks and streams. Most of the water people use everyday comes from these sources of water on the land surface.
How does groundwater move in the water cycle?
Groundwater flows underground Some of the precipitation that falls onto the land infiltrates into the ground to become groundwater. If the water meets the water table (below which the soil is saturated), it can move both vertically and horizontally.
How are rivers and lakes affected by the water cycle?
The amount of water in rivers and lakes is always changing due to inflows and outflows. Inflows to these water bodies will be from precipitation, overland runoff, groundwater seepage, and tributary inflows.
Where does the runoff go in the water cycle?
Many people probably have an overly-simplified idea that precipitation falls on the land, flows overland (runoff), and runs into rivers, which then empty into the oceans. That is “overly simplified” because rivers also gain and lose water to the ground.