The Water Cycle

For a quick, fun summary of the water cycle:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/studyjams/water_cycle/

Components of the Water Cycle:

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has identified 16 components of the water cycle:

• Water Storage in Oceans
• Evaporation
• Sublimation
• Evapotranspiration
• Water in the atmosphere
• Condensation
• Precipitation
• Water storage in ice and snow
• Snowmelt runoff to streams
• Surface runoff
• Streamflow
• Freshwater storage
• Infiltration
• Groundwater storage
• Groundwater discharge
• Springs

Global Water Distribution:

As you can see, 97% of the Earth's water is salt water, while only 3% is freshwater. In total, there is currently about 332.6 million cubic miles of water in the world (Fun Fact!). Fresh surface-water sources, such as rivers and lakes, only make up about 22,300 cubic miles (93,100 cubic kilometers), which is only about 0.0067 percent of the world's total water supply. Yet, rivers and lakes are the sources of most of the water people use everyday.