What Is The Water Cycle Essay

When two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom come together they form water. Water is one of the most important things that humans need to survive. It is so important that humans can’t go more than four days without it. Water effects in more ways than you could imagine. It shapes the land we live on and has been doing so for tens of thousands of years. What makes this all possible is the water cycle. The cycle starts with evaporation. Water evaporates from lakes, rivers, streams and the ocean. It then rises into the atmosphere and condenses and forms clouds. Once the clouds get saturated with water molecules, precipitation happens. This is when the water molecules fall back to the earth as rain or snow. This precipitation is what creates the lakes, rivers and oceans that shape our world. Here in Michigan we are lucky to have some of the best lakes in the world. The Great Lakes are a series of five interconnecting large lakes. The climate, soils, and …show more content…
Over Michigan there was what is known as a continental ice sheet. A continental ice sheet is like a giant glacier. These extend all the way from the poles to the lower latitudes. Continental ice sheets can only occur during periods of extended cold. They are extremely large but still act like normal glaciers. Ice sheets still move along the land by the power of gravity. Along the way the glacier picks up very large boulders which are dragged along by the glacier and cut deep into the earth’s surface. “Common all over the world, glaciated valleys are probably the most readily visible glacial landform. Similar to fjords, they are trough-shaped, often with steep near-vertical cliffs where entire mountainsides were scoured by glacial movement. One of the most striking examples of glaciated valleys can be seen in Yosemite National Park, where glaciers literally sheared away mountainsides, creating deep valleys with vertical walls.”