Water Cycle Vocabulary

Transpiration

• Plants absorb water and give off water vapor through their leaves.

Runoff

• Water draining away from land

Groundwater

• Water underground in or past the soil

Water Cycle

• Water goes through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, Transpiration, and runoffs.

Glaciers

• A large land of ice formed by snow over the years.

Tributaries

• A stream that flows into a larger mass of water

Watershed

• An area drained by a river or stream

Water Table

• Underground surface (soil or rock) that is saturated with water.

Erosion

• Earth is being worn because: water, glaciers, winds, waves, etc.

Weathering

• Continuous mechanical and chemical processes that cause rocks to decompose.

Mechanical Weathering

• Weathering processes that cause physical change of rocks without any change in the chemical look of the rocks

Chemical Weathering

• Erosion of rocks, etc. When water or substances dissolve into them.

Abrasion

• Scraping or wearing away.

Mass Movement

• Movement of the surface caused by gravity
• Landslide and rockfalls are evamples