Introduction / Context:
The hydrologic cycle describes continuous water exchange among atmosphere, land, and oceans. While evaporation moves water from liquid surfaces into the atmosphere, additional atmospheric processes are required to transport, condense, and precipitate that moisture back to the surface, closing the loop.
Given Data / Assumptions:
- We seek the atmospheric counterpart that ensures water returns to the surface.
- Options include non-atmospheric flows that do not directly complete the atmospheric leg.
- We interpret the phrase broadly to include transport leading to condensation and precipitation.
Concept / Approach:
The
movement of water vapour in the atmosphere (advection and convection) is essential. Moist air masses travel, cool, condense into clouds, and produce precipitation that replenishes land and ocean waters. Tides, ocean currents, and groundwater movement are important hydrologic processes but are not the atmospheric mechanism that completes the evaporation–precipitation loop.
Step-by-Step Solution:
Identify evaporation as the starting atmospheric input.Recognize that vapour must be transported and condensed to yield precipitation.Select “movement of water vapour in the atmosphere” as the critical complement.
Verification / Alternative check:
Water-budget and climate models hinge on moisture transport; synoptic weather maps track vapour fluxes that precede rain and snow events, confirming its centrality.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
River tides/sea flow: Oceanic and fluvial processes; do not close the atmospheric branch.Groundwater flow: Subsurface redistribution; important but not an atmospheric return path.
Common Pitfalls:
Equating “hydrologic cycle” only with rivers and groundwater; the atmospheric leg is indispensable for continental precipitation.
Final Answer:
movement of water vapour in the atmosphere
Discussion & Comments