Water is the basic needs for all living things.

It is consumed by livingthingsand
even be a place for them to live. In order for water to always be enough for the earth
population, it follow a cycle of life which is known as the water cycle or more
scientifically called the hydrologic cycle. According toHubbart(2011), hydrologiccycle
is a concept where describes the storage and movement of water between the biosphere,
atmosphere, lithosphere and the hydrosphere. Helen (1999) said that water moves and
changes in water cycle. Steve, Claire and Mous (2000) discussed that there are four
important steps in the process of hydrologic cycle which are evaporation / transpiration,
condensation, precipitation, and lastly, infiltration / surface runoff (refer to Figure 1 in
Appendix1).

The first process of the hydrologic cycle is evaporation. Evaporation is the

process of physical stateofwaterchangedfromaliquidstatetogaseousstate.Duringthe
change of state, there is about 600 calories energy for each gram of water is exchanged.
This is happening with enough amount of heat. For ocean or anything that has large
surface water bodies, these large surface areas absorb the heat from the sun and thus it
warming their surfaces. This is when evaporation occursasthewaterheatsupanditturn
from liquid to vapor. After the liquid has turn in vapor, it leaves the surface of theearth
and enter the atmosphere. Furthermore, not only water releases moisture to the
atmosphere but green plants also playing important part in the hydrologic cycle as they
also release moisture to the atmosphere through the process called transpiration. Due to
the unequal air pressure, the rising of air currents occur and lifts the vapor up to the
atmosphere. Kira (2008) stated that this water vapor cannot be seenbutwe canfeeliton
somehotdays.Theairfeelingdampbecauseitcontainsalotofwatervapor.

The second process of the hydrologic cycle is condensation. Condensation is the

process of changing from water vapor into liquid form. Condensation occurs in the
atmosphere, when warm air moves up to the atmosphere. As a consequence, the water
vapor will form cloud. The forming of clouds can be produced through convection and
the cyclones (Condensation, n.d.). In the process of forming cloud its contains the
elements of sea salt, atmosphere ions, sulfurous, and nitrous acids. Then turning to the
condensation, it will cool the air during in that process (The Water Cycle, .n.d.).
Clouds controlling climate, by changing the radiation that is released to earth. In the
water cycle, the condensation is the process by releasing heat from clouds (Chahine,
1992). When water vapor in the condensation process means it back into a liquid state,
thenturntoraindroplets.

Therefore,thethirdprocessofthehydrologiccycleisprecipitation.Precipitationis

the process of rain falling from the atmosphere to the ground. From the condensation
process then to precipitation process is, where the water vaporischangedto liquidform,
then falling down on land or ocean. Precipitation that reaches the soil surface will
infiltrate into the soil and then moistening the soil (Hubbart, 2011). There are another
two processes, that elaborates how the clouds release precipitation. These processes are
classified as the coalescence process and the ice crystal process (Description of
Hydrologic, n.d.). In the coalescence process, the rain startswithsmallerdropletfalling
and then gradually turn to big droplet falling. While the other process is the ice crystal
formation process. Ice are formed in cold clouds in the atmosphere whereby the cold
temperatures exist (Description of Hydrologic, n.d.). Crystals droplets are formed by
evaporation and condensation. After forming the crystal, it transforms to snow and
dropping from the sky. When the snows reach to theground,thesnowsgraduallyturnto
melt. and then changing into rain droplets (Description of Hydrologic, n.d.). When
rainfall decreases, that meansitisreturnedtotheevaporationprocessfromtheprocessof
precipitation.

The last process of the hydrologic cycle is infiltration and surface runoff..

Infiltration isthephysicalprocessbywhichwaterentersthesoilfromthegroundsurface
( International Water ManagementInstitute(IWMI),n.d).
Somewaterthatinfiltrateswill
stay intheshallowsoillayer,whereitwill progressivelymoveverticallyandhorizontally
through the soil and subsurface material (United States Geological Survey (
USGS),
2015).
Some of the water may infiltrate deeper, refilling groundwater aquifers (
USGS,
2015).
Water may also travel long distances or remain in groundwater storage for long
time before going back to the surface or seeping intootherwaterbodies,suchasstreams
and the oceans (
USGS, 2015). At the same time, water may undergo surface runoff
besides of infiltration
.
At the same time, water also undergo surface runoff. Surface
runoff is the process
when soil is infiltrated to full capacity and excess water,fromrain,
snowmelt, or other sources flow over the land
(
Brian
, 2012).
When rain hits impervious
ground, it starts to flow overland downhill (
USGS, 2015)
. Then, water will flow along
channels as it moves into larger creeks, streams, and rivers (
USGS, 2015). In this case,
the runoff is flowing over bare soil and is silting up sediment into the river (
USGS,
2015).
The runoff entering this creek will return to the ocean (
USGS, 2015)
. Surface
runoffcanalsobedivertedbyhumansfortheirownuses(USGS,2015).

References

Brian,L.
(2012).
Surfacerunoff.
Retrievedfrom

http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/
156352/

Chahine,M.T.(1992).Thehydrologiccycleanditsinfluenceonclimate.
Nature,359
,
373380.

Condensation:Theconversionofwaterfromagasintoaliquid.(n.d.).Retrievedfrom

http://ww2010.atmos.uluc.edu/(Gh)/wwhlpr/condensation.rxm

Descriptionofhydrologiccycle.(n.d.).Retrievedfrom

http://www.nwrtc.noaa.gov/info/
water_cycle/hydrology.cgi

Hubbart,J.(2011).
Hydrologiccycle.
Retrievedfrom
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/153627

Helen,F.(1999).
Thewatercycle.
RoeCrestDr,MN:CapstonePress.

InternationalWaterManagementInstitute(IWMI)(n.d).
Infiltration.
Retrievedfrom
http://iwmi.dhigroup.com/hydrological_cycle/infiltration.html

Kira,F.(2008).
Earth'sWaterCycle.
HuguenotSt,NewRochelle,NY:Benchmark
Education.

Steve,G.,Claire,P.,&Mous,C.(2000).Thewatercycle.
EarthObservatory
,
1
(1),23.

Thewatercycle:Precipitation,condensation,andevaporation.(n.d.).Retrievedfrom
http://study.com/academy/lesson/thewatercycleprecipitationcondensation
andevaporation.html

UnitedStatesGeologicalSurvey(
USGS)
(2015).
InfiltrationThewatercycle.
Retrievedfrom
http://water.usgs.gov/edu/
watercycleinfiltration.html

UnitedStatesGeologicalSurvey(
USGS)
(2015)
.
SurfacerunoffThewatercycle.
Retrievedfrom

http://water.usgs.gov/edu/watercyclerunoff.html

Appendix1