Nature Example
🌧️
The Water Cycle in the UK
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Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Click here for the license
The water on Earth is constantly moving and changing state in a big loop called the water cycle.
1. Evaporation: The sun heats up water in the sea, rivers, and lakes. The liquid water turns into invisible water vapour (gas) and rises.
2. Condensation: High up in the sky, the air is colder. The water vapour cools down and turns back into tiny liquid water droplets, forming clouds.
3. Precipitation: When the water droplets in the clouds get too heavy, they fall back to Earth as rain, hail, or snow.
4. Collection: The water lands on the ground and flows into streams, rivers, and lakes, eventually making its way back to the sea, where the cycle starts all over again.
💡 Fun Facts
- The water you drink today is the same water that dinosaurs drank millions of years ago—it has just been recycled!
- The UK gets lots of rain because we are an island surrounded by the sea (lots of evaporation) and the air that blows over us is often cool (lots of condensation).
- It takes about 8 days for water to evaporate from the sea, form a cloud, and fall back as rain.