Jovan S.

Bucol
BSCEN III
May 03, 2016
Hydrology

What Factors Most Affect Evaporation?

Evaporation of a substance such as water occurs when the molecules in a
liquid state absorb enough heat energy to vaporize into a gas. The heat
energy, which causes the molecules to move, is called kinetic energy.
The water molecules remain the same during this change, except that
they're moving much more quickly and their energy increases due to that
movement.
If you remove the energy by cooling the gas, then the gas condenses back
into a liquid. Take away even more of the heat energy, and the liquid will
solidify. This is what causes water to turn to ice.
You've probably noticed that puddles you see in front of your house in the
morning often are gone by the time you get back from school. What happens
to them? The heat from the sun causes the water to evaporateor turn to
gas. It takes longer for water to evaporate in cool weather than hot weather,
and the deeper the puddle, the longer it will take for all the water to
disappear. Wind can also be a factor affecting evaporation.
If this sounds interesting to you, you can devise an experiment to test the
different factors that affect the evaporation rate of water.
You'd simply put a little water into two shallow containers, such as pie pans.
Don't use a lot of water, or it will take too long for it to evaporate. About 2
teaspoons (10 ml) will do. The water in both containers should be the same
temperature.
Create variables, such as putting one pan directly in the sun, and the other in
the shade. Or put one pan in front of a running fan, and the other in a still
place. You'll need a watch or clock with a minute hand so you can time how
long it takes the water in each circumstance to evaporate.
Try putting some water on the top of a plate to see if the surface area of the
water makes a difference in the evaporation rate.
You'll gather a lot of quantitative information in this science project. Keeping
all your information together in a journal would be helpful. Conducting three
trials for every variable tested is always a good idea in order to achieve more
accurate results.

The Hydrological Cycle. The hydrologic cycle is a conceptual model that

describes the storage and movement of water between the biosphere,
atmosphere, lithosphere, and the hydrosphere. Water on this planet can be
stored in any one of the following reservoirs: atmosphere, oceans, lakes,

rivers,
soils, glaciers,
snowfields,
groundwater.

and

Water moves from one reservoir to another by way of processes like

evaporation, condensation, precipitation, deposition, runoff, infiltration,
sublimation, transpiration, melting, and groundwater flow. The oceans supply
most of the evaporated water found in the atmosphere. Of this evaporated
water, only 91% of it is returned to the ocean basins by way of precipitation.
The remaining 9% is transported to areas over landmasses where
climatological factors induce the formation of precipitation. The resulting
imbalance between rates of evaporation and precipitation over land and
ocean is corrected by runoff and groundwater flow to the oceans.
The planetary water supply is dominated by the oceans. Approximately 97%
of all the water on the Earth is in the oceans. The other 3% is held as freshwater in
glaciers and icecaps, groundwater, lakes, soil, the atmosphere, and within life.
Water is continually cycled between its various reservoirs. This cycling occurs
through the processes of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, deposition,
runoff, infiltration, sublimation, transpiration, melting, and groundwater flow. Table
8b-2 describes the ty[ical residence times of water in the major reservoirs. On
average water is renewed in rivers once every 16 days. Water in the atmosphere is
completely replaced once every 8 days. Slower rates of replacement occur in large
lakes, glaciers, ocean bodies and groundwater. Replacement in these reservoirs can

take from hundreds to thousands of years. Some of these resources (especially

groundwater) are being used by humans at rates that far exceed their renewal
times. This type of resource use is making this type of water effectively
nonrenewable.