The Hydrosphere

The Hydrosphere

>Discontinuous layer of water at or near the Earth’s surface. >The liquid water component of the Earth.

WATER• Water is a transparent fluid which

forms the world's streams, lakes, oceans and rain, and is the major constituent of the fluids of living things. *H2O

Water cycle

•The hydrological cycle transfers water from one state or reservoir to another.

1.Evaporation

• Evaporation is when the sun heats up water in rivers or lakes or the ocean and turns it into vapor or steam. The water vapor or steam leaves the river, lake or ocean and goes into the air.

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2. Condensation •Water vapor in the air gets cold and changes back into liquid, forming clouds. This is called condensation.

3. Precipitation

• Precipitation occurs when so much water has condensed that the air cannot hold it anymore.  The clouds get heavy and water falls back to the earth in the form of rain, hail, sleet or snow.

4.Collection

• When water falls back to earth as precipitation, it may fall back in the oceans, lakes or rivers or it may end up on land.  When it ends up on land, it will either soak into the earth and become part of the “ground water” that plants and animals use to drink or it may run over the soil and collect in the oceans, lakes or rivers where the cycle startsall over again.

Formations of Water

• stream =the smallest flowing body of water that is part of a river system.

• creek =larger than a stream and may be formed by two streams coming together .

• river =larger than a creek and may be formed by two creeks coming together 

• lake =a large body of fresh water surrounded by land. -source is streams or rivers, which also take water out .

• watershed =the land that is drained by a river

• sea =part of an ocean, can be surrounded by land • gulf =large area of water partly surrounded by land 

• bay =like a gulf, partly surrounded by land, wide outlet to the sea 

• ocean =largest body of water • waterfall =a stream of water that falls from a high place 

• hot spring =a spring of naturally hot water, typically heated by volcanic activity below the earth's surface 

Water pollution•Water pollution is the

contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers and groundwater).

Water Conservation

•Protect•Promote•Preserve

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