(7) Describe the water cycle, including definitions of the terms precipitation, evapotranspiration, evaporation, sublimation, infiltration, interception.

A. Water cycle is a travelling and returning process of water from the air to Earth and back to the atmosphere.
Precipitation is a process in which condensed water vapor falls to the Earth’s surface, mostly via rains. This amount of water now is consumed via a process, called interception. But not the whole amount is consumed by plants, animals, or humans; the rest of them never infiltrates the ground but evaporate directly back to the atmosphere.
Precipitation that reaches the soil moves into the ground by infiltration. From there, water finds its way into springs and streams. When being exposed to the Sun in the pond, the ocean, or any kinds of water bodies, water starts to evaporate. This is called evaporation.
In addition to this, water vapor also comes from sublimation in which snow and ice sublime below the melting point temperature and from evapotranspiration which is the total amount of evaporating water from the surfaces of the ground and the vegetation.

B. The water cycle has no starting point. But, we'll begin in the oceans, since that is where most of Earth's water exists. The sun, which drives the water cycle, heats water in the oceans. Some of it evaporates as vapor into the air. Ice and snow can sublimate directly into water vapor. Rising air currents take the vapor up into the atmosphere, along with water from evapotranspiration, which is water transpired from plants and evaporated from the soil. The vapor rises into the air where cooler temperatures cause it to condense into clouds. Air currents move clouds around the globe; cloud particles collide, grow, and fall out of the sky as precipitation. Some precipitation falls as snow and can accumulate as ice caps and glaciers, which can store frozen water for thousands of years. Snow packs in warmer climates often thaw and melt when spring arrives, and the melted water flows overland as snowmelt. Most precipitation falls back into the oceans or onto land, where, due to gravity, the precipitation flows over the ground as surface runoff. A portion of runoff enters rivers in valleys in the landscape, with stream flow moving water towards the oceans. Runoff, and ground-water seepage, accumulate and are stored as freshwater in lakes. Not all runoff flows into rivers, though. Much of it soaks into the ground as infiltration. Some water infiltrates deep into the ground and replenishes aquifers (saturated subsurface rock), which store huge amounts of freshwater for long periods of time. Some infiltration stays close to the land surface and can seep back into surface-water bodies (and the ocean) as ground-water discharge, and some ground water finds openings in the land surface and emerges as freshwater springs. Over time, though, all of this water keeps moving, some to reenter the ocean.

C. The water cycle:
There is deep storage of water this is fed by groundwater which is a source of water underneath the earths surface. This is fed by river and any standing water or by precipitation. The river can be fed by the precipitation is rain. It is fed by Evaporation of water from ponds and wildlife, and Transpiration. Transpiration is water moving through trees and out through leaves. Evapotranspiration is the suns evaporation of the transpiration. Sublimation is when a solid goes directly to a gas without being a liquid. This takes place when glaciers melt. Infiltration is the downward movement of water through the soil. Interception is when the vegetation captures the water and the water does not reach the ground.

D.Water cycle is the process by which water travels in the sequence from the air to Earth and returns to the atmosphere. It moves through cloud formation in the atmosphere, precipitation, interception, and infiltration into the ground.
Precipitiation- sets of water cycle in motion. Water vapor, circulating in the atmosphere, eventually falls in some form of precipitation.
Interception-some is intercepted by vegetation, dead organic matter on the ground and urban structures and streets. (Because of interception, which can be considerable, various amounts of water never infiltrate the ground but evaporate directly back to the atmosphere.)
Infiltration-precipitation that reaches the soil moves into the ground. The trate of infiltration depends on the type of soil, slope, vegetation, and intensity of that precipitation.
Transpiration is the evaporation of the water from internal surfaces of leaves, stems, and other living part. (through their roots, they take in water from the soil and lose it through the leaves and other organs in a process called transpiration)
Evapotranspiration-the total amount of evaporating water from the surfaces of the ground and vegetation (surface evaporation plus transpiration)

E.Precipitation: sets the water cycle in motion; water vapor in atmos falls in form of precipitation.
Interception: Some goes to ground, bodies of water, vegetation, organic matter on ground, and urban structures and streets
Infiltration: precipitation that reaches the soil moves into the ground; rate depends on type of soil, slope, vegetation, intensity of precipitation. Excess water can flow across the surface as surface runoff
evapotransipiration: total amount of evaporating water from surfaces of ground and vegetation(surface evaporation + transpiration)
(transpiration = evaporation of water from internal surfaces of leaves,stems,other living parts)
Evaporation: vaporization of liquid water and returning back into atmosphere
sublimation: snow to vapor in air without melting first.