Earth Science Practice Test: The Water Cycle
- The Water Cycle
- 10 questions
- 15 minutes
This test covers how water moves between the ocean, air, land and living things. Tip: name each process by the change of state or the direction water moves.
Tap an option to mark your answer. You can change your mind, or tap the same option again to leave the question blank. The correct answers and explanations appear when you finish the test.Tap an option to answer; tap it again to leave the question blank.
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Question 1
On a cool morning, tiny drops of water form around dust particles high in the air and a cloud appears. Which process forms the cloud droplets?
Correct answer: A
Condensation is water vapor changing into liquid. Rising air cools, and when it reaches its dew point the vapor condenses on tiny particles, forming cloud droplets.
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Question 2
What is transpiration?
Correct answer: C
Plants pull water from the soil through their roots and release it as vapor through pores in their leaves. Soaking into the soil is infiltration, and flowing over the ground is runoff.
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Question 3
What is the main source of energy that drives the water cycle?
Correct answer: D
Sunlight heats water and makes it evaporate, and the uneven heating of Earth also drives the winds that carry vapor. Gravity then brings precipitation and runoff back down.
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Question 4
Where is most of Earth's water found?
Correct answer: B
About 97% of all Earth's water is salt water in the oceans. Glaciers and ice caps hold most of the fresh water, but fresh water is only a small share of the total.
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Question 5
Most of Earth's fresh water is stored in which form?
Correct answer: B
Roughly two-thirds of the fresh water on Earth is frozen in ice sheets and glaciers, mostly in Antarctica and Greenland. Lakes and rivers hold only a tiny fraction.
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Question 6
A farm field is replaced by a large paved parking lot. How does this change the water cycle at that spot after a heavy rain?
Correct answer: D
Pavement is impermeable, so rain cannot infiltrate and instead runs off quickly into drains and streams. This also means less water reaches the groundwater below.
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Question 7
What is an aquifer?
Correct answer: A
An aquifer is underground rock or sediment, such as sand, gravel or porous sandstone, with connected spaces that store water and let it flow to wells and springs. Clay layers that block flow are not aquifers.
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Question 8
On a cold, dry winter day, snow on a sunny roof slowly disappears without ever melting into liquid water. Which process is happening?
Correct answer: C
Sublimation is a solid changing directly into a gas. Deposition is the reverse, when vapor turns directly into ice, as when frost forms.
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Question 9
On a clear night, the grass cools until drops of water appear on the blades by morning. Why does dew form?
Correct answer: C
When air cools to its dew point, it is saturated and its vapor condenses on cool surfaces. On clear nights the ground loses heat quickly, so the air right above it reaches the dew point first.
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Question 10
A town pumps water from its wells faster than rain and snowmelt can refill the ground. What happens to the water table near the wells?
Correct answer: A
The water table is the top of the saturated zone. Taking out water faster than recharge lowers it, and wells may have to be drilled deeper.
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