The paths of water through the hydrological cycle can be described as follows. Wind and air currents normally transport water vapor in the atmosphere. As the air mass in the atmosphere cools, water vapor forms clouds through the process of condensation (Ashcroft, 2003). Further cooling causes the clouds to fall to the earth surface as precipitation which can be in the form of rain, hail or snow. Water that falls to the ground can be absorbed by plants, it can be stored in streams or lakes or it can penetrate the soil into the underground. The energy from the sun causes the water on the earth surface to “evaporate back to the atmosphere” (Ashcroft, 2003). Water taken up by pants normally returns to the atmosphere through transpiration.
Water can occur in three states namely, solid, liquid and gas. Water changes from the gas state to liquid through condensation. This involves the cooling of the gas which leads to loss of energy. Through freezing, liquid water becomes solid thereby losing energy. Through evaporation, liquid water changes into gas by gaining energy. The change of solid water to liquid involves gaining energy while a direct change of water from its gas state to solid through frost formation involves loss of energy (Ashcroft, 2003).
Ground water well, water table, saturated zone and cone of depression are related as follows. The saturated zone can be divided into the phreatic zone and the capillary zone (Ashcroft, 2003). The water table thus separates the phreatic zone and the capillary zone. The phreatic zone supplies the underground well with water which in turn supplies springs and streams. The cone of depression forms within an aquifer as ground water gets pumped from an underground well.