Hydrologic Cycle

A detailed Summary of Hydrologic Cycle

There are four stages that are needed to have a successful hydrologic cycle; they are precipitation, evaporation, run off, and infiltration. Now Mother Nature has very delicately monitored these four stages ever since the earth was created. The delicate balance of water being put into and taken out of the earth maintained a natural hydrological cycle world wide, but since man has inhabited the world, the cycle has changed. At first minor changes to the cycle did not really affect the efficiency of the natural balance, but now with the modern population the earth is drastically changing, along with the delicate water balance. For example in Disney's movie "The Lion King" Moofasa the lion king talked about a circle of life and how if one thing is taken out, the whole cycle will change, most times for the worst. This circle of life is also evident in the hydrologic cycle, if humans interfere the consequences can be drastic.

The primary stage of the water cycle is the precipitation stage, this is when the accumulated water droplets know as rainfall, precipitate from the sky in condensed concentrations of water, know as clouds. With the water hitting the ground some of the droplets will instantly absorbed by the earth. The

soil would act like a large sponge collecting the water until it is fully saturated. Before humans inhabited the earth had a balanced Eco-system that would naturally balance out the inflow and outflow of water. The excess water would become runoff, then would flow down hills into valleys or lakes creating rivers and lakes. When the rainfall exceeded the rivers capacity (load) there would be a flood. It would be a naturally controlled flood, and the overflow of water would run into the natural flood plain. Unfortunately with human interference in the fluvial process, the rivers have had to change the natural flow patterns, and floodplains have be drastically altered. Humans like to live near bodies of water, and therefore have built unnatural levees and dams to try to control the rate of flow and where the direction of the river. With the changes that have been made the rivers and lakes now erode different landforms, and can cause catastrophic damage to human and wildlife habitats. After the water has made its way to the ocean from the rivers and other such run off. It begins to evaporate, and cause clouds to form again. Thus replenishing the water cycle.

Plummer Charles C., and McGeary David. Physical Geology. California State University, Sacramento, 1981.

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Approximate Word count = 873
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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Hydrologic Cycle

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