Rusk County Groundwater Conservation District

Water moves in a continuous cycle in different forms. This is called THE WATER CYCLE. There is about the same amount of water on earth now that there was when the dinosaurs roamed our planet. The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. Since the water cycle is truly a "cycle," there is no beginning or end. Water can change forms among liquid, vapor, and ice at various places in the water cycle, with these processes happening in the blink of an eye and over millions of years.
Although the balance of water on Earth remains fairly constant over time, individual water molecules can come and go in a hurry. The water in the apple you ate yesterday may have fallen as rain half-way around the world last year or could have been used 100 million years ago by a Dinosaur taking a bath.
There are six processes that make up the water cycle
1. Evaporation is the process where water, changes from its liquid state to a gaseous state and is transported to the sky as vapor.
2. Condensation is the opposite of evaporation. Condensation occurs when the water vapor changed into a liquid forming small droplets of water that combine into clouds.
3. Precipitation occurs when the small droplets combine into larger droplets producing raindrops.
4. Surface Runoff occurs when the rain or precipitation returns to Earth and flows into streams, rivers, ponds and lakes. Small streams flow into larger streams, then into rivers, and eventually the water flows into the ocean.
5. Percolation is a process where rain water soaks into the ground, through the soil and underlying rock layers. Some of this water ultimately returns to the surface at springs and evaporates again. Some of this water remains underground and is called groundwater.
6. Transpiration is an evaporation process controlled by plants. As plants absorb water from the soil the water moves from the roots to the leaves. Once the water reaches the leaves, some of it evaporates from the leaves, adding to the amount of water vapor in the air.