A Drop's Journey The life cycle of water on earth
What would people learn if they could follow a drop of water wherever it went?
They would discover that the water exists permanently, cycling through different states of matter as it travels on its adventure through so many different aspects of the earth. Its journey might not be measured in years but could be measured in states of being—
How many times the droplet finds itself to be part of a pool of water in a suburban back yard
or floating in a cloud
or part of a massive sea
or locked up in a glacier...
Let’s examine how a tiny drop of water could make its way through so many different circumstances.
Our drop of water is like any other drop of water—it is made of hydrogen and oxygen. In fact, each molecule of our water drop looks exactly the same: two hydrogen atoms linked up with one oxygen atom. This combination of hydrogen and oxygen is simply what makes water what it is.
When we first see our little drop of water, it is part of a huge ocean, the biggest of all the oceans. This little drop of water lives at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Being part of the rumbling ocean means it is liquid, of course. It’s dark and cold at the bottom of the ocean, and relatively bleak. Every once in a while the water molecule is somehow consumed by a deep‐sea dweller, and passes through its body until it eventually rejoins the ocean.
As this happens, the little water drop may end up in a different part of the ocean where it is more shallow, and there is less pressure and more light, as some sunlight filters through.
This is where the life cycle of the drop of water begins its epic journey!
The Sun is the source of all energy on earth.
As the little drop of water floats on top the surface of the ocean, the sun warms its molecules through a process called heat transfer by radiation.