The water cycle and tides

GeographyWater & OceansAges 11–12

An animated sea–mountain scene: seawater evaporates under the Sun's heat (evaporation speeds up as temperature rises), water vapour rises and drifts with the wind, condenses into clouds, falls as rain on the mountains, then returns to the sea through surface runoff and groundwater. Count the number of water droplets at each stage. The small panel on the right shows the Moon (draggable) pulling on the seawater to create tides, with sea level in the scene rising and falling on a cycle of about 12 hours 25 minutes.