When does the water cycle stop?

Water cycles demonstrate how water evaporates from the oceans then rises in the air to form clouds. In areas of low pressure, the clouds release the water as rain. This falls into the oceans again, or falls onto the land where it gradually works its way back into the oceans via streams and rivers. This is a continual, cyclical process.

However, in some areas of the world where there is no rainfall for long periods of time, local water cycles do stop. When one event in the cycle fails to happen, the cycle breaks down.

But water can neither be created nor destroyed – it will always exist in some form. If you consider the world as a whole, with one big water cycle, the processes involved are always occurring somewhere: this cycle never stops.

Fact File:

Too much rainwater can have disastrous effects on the land. Flooding washes away fertile soil, and begins eroding the land.

 

Picture Credit : Google