Water is a compound made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Now it may not seem that important when you say it like that, but water is essential to life for all living things. The paper you are about to read contains information referring to what the water cycle is, what powers it and why it is so important to learn about.
The water cycle, otherwise known as the hydrological cycle, is the reason that all living things can survive because no plant or animal can exist without clean water. The water cycle is a process that never ends and started 3 billion years ago when the Earth was formed. It is a way for water to recycle itself so we can reuse it to drink or bathe. It is made up of 4 stages, evaporation, condensation and collection.
The Sun is what powers the water cycle. When the sun provides light, it also gives off heat which makes water evaporate. The vapor goes up into the air and then it condenses and sticks to dust particles and forms clouds. When the droplets get too heavy, they fall as one of the four types of precipitation; rain, snow, sleet or hail. After it falls it collects in oceans and rivers where the process starts over with the sun’s UV rays evaporating the collections of water.
It is important to learn about the water cycle so we can help improve water quality and prevent point and nonpoint source pollution. The earth’s water supply is not in as good a condition as it used to be. Different things like thermal pollution, acid rain, and oil spills, are hurting the earth’s supply of water. If we allow these things to keep happening the earth’s water supply, it wills lowly wane. Which we don’t want to happen because there is a small amount of available water, to begin with. Enhancing water quality is better than letting everything stay the same and hope we don’t perish. Because no living thing on earth, humans, plants, or animals can live without clean drinking water.
To summarize, this paper talked about how the water cycle provides clean water for us to use. It talked about how the sun’s UV rays allow the water cycle to go through its stages over and over again. Finally, the paper went over and described how important it is to know how the water cycle works so we can improve water quality.
