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When tectonic plates move they cause water to come in and out. These are usually caused by Volcanic eruptions.

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Wildfires are helpful to the water cycle because they remove excess vegetation and dries up the soil, increasing the possibility of runoff.

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For those of you who read the Polar Ice article - how will Global Warming affect what was discussed in the article? Will there be more or less water "stored" as ice?
Tag your answer with #warming
- Mr. Katz

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Zuly - What would happen if wildfires increased due to climate change? Would there be a huge increase of runoff? How would affect the organisms in that habitat?

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Zuly - What would happen if wildfires increased due to climate change? Would there be a huge increase of runoff? How would affect the organisms in that habitat?

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Wildfires can actually support the water cycle by removing vegetation and reducing soils ability to hold water, increasing runoff. But because the soil can end up with damage lasting years, it ends up causing more rivers, floods, and landslides.

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Kate Bernier- Polar Ice and the Water Cycle

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Kate Bernier- Polar Ice and the Water Cycle

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This was interesting because i'd never considered putting other types of precipitation other than rain in my water cycle. There's a lot of water stored in the polar ice caps. Global warming makes a lot of the ice melt which adds more water into the ocean.

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How living things contribute to the water cycle - Ayana Moore

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How living things contribute to the water cycle - Ayana Moore

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Plants contribute to the water cycle because trees absorb and release energy, they also turn sunlight into renewable energy using photosynthesis. Animals contribute because they release more air then they take in so when they exhale the water droplets are contributing to the water cycle.

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The water cycle defines the process in which water moves continuously above and below the surface of the Earth. Bodies of water, clouds, evaporation and condensation all play a part in the water cycle, but living things also occupy a vital role in this process. Without the contribution of living organisms, water would not disperse across the planet in the way it does today.

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read)

Bodies of water, clouds, evaporation and condensation all play vital roles in the water cycle, but so do living things. Plants, especially trees, contribute to the water cycle via transpiration, where water evaporates from the surface of their leaves. Close to 10 percent of all water enters the water cycle due to plant transpiration. Animals contribute to the water cycle via respiration, perspiration and urination.

To understand the role of living organisms in the water cycle, it helps to understand the basics of the cycle itself. When water evaporates from the world's oceans, lakes and rivers, it turns into water vapor and travels into the atmosphere where it forms into clouds. As the water vapor in the clouds condenses, droplets of rain begin to fall. The rain replenishes lakes and rivers not only by falling directly on them, but by seeping into the ground and forming springs, through a process called infiltration. Groundwater then seeps back into the ocean, where the cycle repeats.

Without the water cycle, freshwater lakes and rivers would not exist and living things would not be able to thrive on land far from the ocean. Living organisms do not just benefit from the water cycle -- they participate in it. The contributions of living organisms to the water cycle are vital.

Plants, particularly trees, contribute greatly to the water cycle because of the processes they use to absorb and release energy. Unlike animals, which get their energy from food, plants convert sunlight into usable energy through photosynthesis. Plants also absorb nutrients and water through their roots.

When a tree absorbs water, it travels throughout its branches to its leaves. Needed for photosynthesis, trees and plants cannot get the energy they need from the sun without water. During photosynthesis, some excess water evaporates from the surface of the leaves, becoming water vapor. The water vapor in the process of transpiration travels into the atmosphere and becomes part of the water cycle, in the same way as evaporated water from lakes, rivers and oceans.

At first glance, it may not seem that plant transpiration contributes that much to the global water cycle. But plants and trees supply a large amount of the world's water via this process. About 10 percent of all water enters the cycle via plant transpiration.

Though they don't contribute as much as plants, animals still supply some of the water present in the water cycle. Animals contribute water mainly through breathing, perspiration and urination.

When animals breathe, their warm lungs fill with air. Inside the lungs, some of that air condenses into water vapor. When an animal exhales, they release more water vapor than they breathed in, which adds to the water present in the water cycle.

Many animals also sweat to cool down. When droplets of sweat evaporate from the surface of an animal's skin, they take a bit of the animal's body heat with them. They also turn into water vapor and enter the water cycle, just like water evaporating from plant leaves.

When animals consume water, they urinate to expel the excess, which then then evaporates and re-enters the water cycle. Even animal dung contains some water which may re-enter the cycle in the same way.

Though trees represent the biggest living contributors to the water cycle, animals also play a valuable role in recycling Earth's water. Without living creatures, the water cycle's effectiveness diminishes, and less water recycles. Though often not included in the explanation of the water cycle, all living organisms contribute to it in their distinctive ways.

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How Do Living Organisms Contribute to the Water Cycle?

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The water cycle defines the process in which water moves continuously above and below the surface of the Earth. Bodies of water, clouds, evaporation and condensation all play a part in the water cycle, but living things also occupy a vital role in this process.

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How Do Living Organisms Contribute to the Water Cycle/The rain replenishes lakes and rivers not only by falling directly on them, but by seeping into the ground and forming springs, through a process called infiltration.

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the water cycle and sulphur play a key role in earths evolution and that during rainstorm floods they can cause a earth quack

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Hurricanes are from the elaborate exportation of sea water, this brings water into the atmosphere.

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Hurricanes form over tropical oceans/ At these latitudes, seawater is hot enough to give the storms strength and the rotation of the Earth makes them spin.

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Erica Nguyen - Hurricanes and  the Water Cycle

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Erica Nguyen - Hurricanes and  the Water Cycle

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Hurricanes from when warm seawater evaporates while humid air is dragged along. As long as water stays in the lower atmosphere, it will strengthen and suck in wind and increase speed. I wonder if the climate change will increase more hurricanes

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Even though wildfires seems bad but it increase runoff depending on the plants burned.

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jaysen torres: hurican and the water cycle

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jaysen torres: hurican and the water cycle

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the ocean furface must be 80 degres fairenhight (27° Celsius) for it to raise and it must have hot air and the earths rotation will cause it to spin

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I think how the hurricanes turn out depends on the land or water the hurricane is moving over and how much condensation is in the clouds

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Aarush - Wildfires can result to there being huge water problems. Soil is burned to the point that it wont be able to absorb water for years which not plats or cops wont be able to be grown their. When it rains on a slope that has been burned really bad all the ashes and burnt soil fall into rivers. This can severely affect the quality of drinking water for the people.

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Aarush - Wildfires can result to there being huge water problems. Soil is burned to the point that it wont be able to absorb water for years which not plats or cops wont be able to be grown their. When it rains on a slope that has been burned really bad all the ashes and burnt soil fall into rivers. This can severely affect the quality of drinking water for the people.

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Shy Merrick- hurricanes and the water  cycle 

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Shy Merrick- hurricanes and the water  cycle 

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seawater is hot enough to give the storm strength and the rotation of the earth makes them spin

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Wild fires and water cycle - Ayana Moore

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Wild fires and water cycle - Ayana Moore

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Wildfires surprisingly increase the amount of water supply in California. This is because precipitation is normally sucked in by soil, and vegetation. When certain vegetation and soil burns it can lead to runoff, and add to the amount of water. However when plants and soil are damaged it can cause floods and landslides.

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Summer marks the traditional beginning of California's fire season, although the warming climate has stretched the season considerably. Until the winter rains arrive, wildfires will burn forests and grasslands throughout the state. Since January 1, about 3,700 fires have consumed more than 111,000 acres of land-outpacing 2017, the most destructive and deadly fire season in state history.

While public safety and economic costs deserve and receive a great deal of attention, wildfires also have consequences for the management of water-including the amount and quality of supply, and the potential for flooding.

Fire can bring short-term water supply benefits by increasing runoff for downstream use. Most precipitation that falls on hillsides is captured by plants and soils and sent back into the atmosphere. By removing vegetation and reducing the ability of soils to hold water, most burns lead to an increase in runoff. The amount of increase depends on the type of vegetation that is burned. In Sierra conifer forests, reducing tree cover by about 40% may result in a 9% increase in water yield. Conversely, burning grasslands leads to negligible increases in water supply.

Managing forests with mechanical thinning and prescribed burning simulates the effects of low- and moderate-severity wildfire-creating opportunities to improve forest health while increasing water supply. But before concluding that forest fires and active management can reliably increase water supply, it's worth noting that increases in water can be short-lived as vegetation rapidly grows back. And in drier forests like those of the southern Sierra Nevada, most downstream users are unlikely to see increased yield s.

Wildfire can also bring some serious water management challenges.

Intense fires remove vegetation that prevents excessive erosion. Soils burned at high severity can also lose the ability to absorb water for a few years after a burn. When rain falls on these fire-ravaged slopes, the fast-moving runoff can erode soils and ash, transporting them into rivers. These flows threaten drinking-water quality and fill water supply and hydropower reservoirs with sediment. Following a series of severe wildfires in the American River headwaters, Placer County Water Agency experienced significant damage to its water supply and hydropower infrastructure, including costly impacts from increasing sediment and debris. The agency is now working with multiple partners to reduce wildfire risk above two reservoirs using prescribed burning and mechanical thinning.

The damaged soils and loss of vegetation following a severe burn can also increase the threat of downstream flooding and landslides. In some cases, these slides can become "debris flows"-fast-moving rivers of mud, rock, and other materials that can take out everything in their path. These are one of the most dangerous types of flash floods in California. The most recent and deadly example of this was in Montecito following the December 2017 Thomas Fire (the largest fire by area in state history). In early January 2018, record-high rainfall fell on the fire-scarred slopes above Montecito. The resulting debris flows killed 23 people and damaged or destroyed 400 homes.

Experts are predicting another year of intense wildfire activity. Water managers in affected regions will need to address the impacts of fire on local water supply and flood hazards, and must also account for such impacts in future planning.

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How Wildfires Affect California's Water Supply - Public Policy Institute of California

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Summer marks the traditional beginning of California's fire season, although the warming climate has stretched the season considerably. Until the winter rains arrive, wildfires will burn forests and grasslands throughout the state. Since January 1, about 3,700 fires have consumed more than 111,000 acres of land-outpacing 2017, the most destructive and deadly fire season in state history.

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Oceans affect storms because the seawater is hot enough for the rotation-Aniyah

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Dr. Shenk - Why do some hurricanes create mostly wind damage while others turn into big soaking storms?  

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Dr. Shenk - Why do some hurricanes create mostly wind damage while others turn into big soaking storms?  

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I learned that plants and animals contribute to the water cycle by the process of transpiration, respiration, perspiration and urination.

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jaysen torres: volcanos and water cycle 

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jaysen torres: volcanos and water cycle 

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the water in the ocean will go in the titanic plates as it goes under the rest and it will heat up lowering the rest of the rocks melting point creating magma

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Shy Merrick- Wildfires affect California

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Shy Merrick- Wildfires affect California

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fire can bring short term water supply benefits by increasing runoff from downstream use

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Dr. Shenk - When water turns to steam, it expands and can expand explosively.  Might that contribute to the energy in volcanic eruptions?

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Dr. Shenk - When water turns to steam, it expands and can expand explosively.  Might that contribute to the energy in volcanic eruptions?

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- Living organisms are needed so that water can go throughout the earth. That's how living things survive from water sources.

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Aarush - Hurricanes form over warmer water and when and become more powerful day after day, but when it starts to move and is over colder water or land it starts to get weak and break down. The more hotter air and water are pulled in the center of the hurricane will go down in pressure and the winds will start to increase.

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Aarush - Hurricanes form over warmer water and when and become more powerful day after day, but when it starts to move and is over colder water or land it starts to get weak and break down. The more hotter air and water are pulled in the center of the hurricane will go down in pressure and the winds will start to increase.

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Kate Bernier- Wildfires and the Water Cycle

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Kate Bernier- Wildfires and the Water Cycle

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I learned that wildfires have both positive and negative effects on the water cycle. The fires get rid of vegetation which allows for more runoff which in turn increases water supply. This can also be harmful because if there is a lot of rain this will lead to flooding.

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Erica Nguyen - Wildfires and water cycle

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Erica Nguyen - Wildfires and water cycle

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Fires can actually increase the amount of water supply. Precipitation usually is absorbed by plants and soil. Burning some vegetation and soil can lead to a runoff and increase the amount of water. However, damaged soil and burned plants can cause landslides and floods

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Lakes are only 0.01% of water in the earth. Streams and rivers are only .0001% of the world.

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-ice is part of precipitation, but can take a long time to become part of the water cycle
-the second most percentage of water on Earth is in ice

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A lot of things effect the water cycle, but what most people don't realize is how much organisms effect it. Around 10% of water enters the water cycle because of plants transpiration. Transpiration is when water evaporates from plants and their leaves as a side affect of photosynthesis.

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Everything plays an important part in the water cycle, including living things. Animals, plants and other living organisms contribute to the water cycle by many ways including transpiration, respiration and perspiration.

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Dr. Shenk - I wonder why those bags were on the plant?  They looked like they had condensation in them.  I wonder if that was from transpiration.  Sounds a lot like perspiration!

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Dr. Shenk - I wonder why those bags were on the plant?  They looked like they had condensation in them.  I wonder if that was from transpiration.  Sounds a lot like perspiration!

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A lot of Earth's water exists as ice. 2.05% of all the water on Earth is stored in ice caps and glaciers! There is a lot more to the water cycle than just evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. Sometimes water can be stored away as ice for millions of years before it re-enters the main water cycle.

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Polar ice and the water cycle

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Yes, all that ice - from sea ice and pack ice to icebergs and ice sheets - is an important, yet often neglected part of the water cycle. Earth's ice, existing in various forms such as sea ice, ice shelves, icebergs, ice sheets, glaciers, lake ice, river ice, snow, and permafrost, even has a special name: the cryosphere.

While students learn that precipitation means rain, hail, snow, or sleet, many diagrams of the cycle include rain as the sole form of precipitation. Even though, on a worldwide scale, most precipitation is rain, this is certainly not true for the polar regions.

Additionally, because of the use of the word cycle, students may mistakenly believe that the water is continuously moving through its various forms. Actually, much more water is in storage than is moving through the cycle. In fact, ice caps and glaciers store the second highest percentage of water (the world's oceans being the first). And while water is stored as ice, summer melt of ice sheets and glaciers and calving of icebergs are also contributions to the cycling of water.

Inventory of water at the Earth's surface. Adapted from Pidwirny, M. (2006). "The Hydrologic Cycle." Fundamentals of Physical Geography, 2nd Edition. http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/8b.html.

Including ice and snow in a study of the water cycle also provides an opportunity to teach states and changes of matter in a real-world context. Solids, liquids, gases, melting, freezing, evaporation, and even sublimation can be taught within the cycling of the world's water through oceans, water vapor, ice and snow, and runoff. (Note: The water cycle cannot be used to teach the remaining two states of matter: plasma and the Bose-Einstein condensate. These states are much more complex and not appropriate for the elementary level.)

The Water Cycle

The Water Cycle
This comprehensive resource from the U.S. Geological Survey provides all the background information needed to teach the water cycle. The interactive site's pages include a diagram (pictured below) available with or without labels and in several languages, a link to a student-friendly image of the water cycle, and links to a wealth of information about each step of the water cycle. A narrative story follows a drop of water through the cycle, but doesn't include snow or ice in its many possibilities. Summaries of the water cycle (written for teachers) are available in several forms: full summary, text-only, and a one-page quick version.

What Goes Around Comes Around: The Water Cycle
This resource guide from the Middle School Portal 2: Math and Science Pathways project provides background information and content knowledge for teachers. While the suggested lessons and activities are for middle school students, you may find them helpful in considering how students will refine their knowledge of water, its properties, and the water cycle in grades 6-8.

States of Matter and Changes in Matter

States of Matter
An overview of solids, liquids, and gases including the behavior of particles in each as well as properties of each state. Does not include plasma or the Bose-Einstein condensate.

States of Matter Overview
An overview of the five states of matter: solids, liquids, gases, plasmas, and the Bose-Einstein condensate. Sidebar links provide more information on each state as well as phase changes. This site may also be appropriate for upper-elementary or advanced students.

Water, Ice, and Snow in the Polar Regions

Ice
This page from the Exploratorium's Ice Stories web site discusses the many forms of ice found in the polar regions. Watch a video of Penn State glaciologist Richard Alley explaining why ice is "cool."

Glaciers and Icecaps: Storehouses of Freshwater
An overview of glaciers and icecaps, with links to additional resources.
The following resources are from Teachers' Domain, a collection of multimedia resources for classroom use and professional development. Teachers' Domain requires creation of an account (free) to access these and any other resources in the collection.
Earth's Cryosphere: The Arctic
This video segment (3m 59s) adapted from NASA uses satellite imagery to provide an overview of the cryosphere in the northern hemisphere, including the Arctic.

Earth's Cryosphere: Antarctica
This video segment (2m 37s) adapted from NASA uses satellite imagery to provide an overview of the cryosphere in Antarctica.

Glaciers
This interactive activity adapted from the National Park Service offers a comprehensive introduction to glaciers. Explore the different sections to learn where and why glaciers form, what influences their growth and decline, and how a glacier moves.

Antarctica: Sea Ice
This NOVA video clip (2m 35s) explains how sea ice forms, how its seasonal fluctuation dramatically changes the continent of Antarctica, and the role sea ice played in the failed Endurance expedition.

Earth System: Ice and Global Warming
This video segment (3m 04s) adapted from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center explains how global warming may increase glacial melting and the consequences for the planet.

National Science Education Standards: Science Content Standards

A study of the water cycle and states and changes of matter aligns with the Physical Science and Earth and Space Science content standards of the National Science Education Standards:

Physical Science (Content Standard B):

As a result of their activities in grades K-4, all students should develop an understanding of properties of objects and materials; position and motion of objects; and light, heat, electricity, and magnetism.

Materials can exist in different states - solid, liquid, and gas. Some common materials, such as water, can be changed from one state to another by heating or cooling.

As a result of their activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop an understanding of properties and changes of properties in matter, motions and forces, and transfer of energy.

Earth and Space Science (Content Standard D):

As a result of their activities in grades K-4, all students should develop an understanding of properties of earth materials, objects in the sky, and changes in earth and sky.

As a result of their activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop an understanding of the structure of the earth system, the earth's history, and the earth in the solar system.

Water, which covers the majority of the earth's surface, circulates through the crust, oceans, and atmosphere in what is known as the "water cycle." Water evaporates from the earth's surface, rises and cools as it moves to higher elevations, condenses as rain or snow, and falls to the surface where it collects in lakes, oceans, soil, and in rocks underground.

Read the entire National Science Education Standards online for free or register to download the free PDF. The content standards are found in Chapter 6.
This article was written by Jessica Fries-Gaither. For more information, see the Contributors page. Email Kimberly Lightle, Principal Investigator, with any questions about the content of this site.
Copyright August 2008 - The Ohio State University. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0733024. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. This work is licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons license.

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Reconsidering the Water Cycle in the Context of the Polar Regions - Water, Ice, and Snow - Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears

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Yes, all that ice - from sea ice and pack ice to icebergs and ice sheets - is an important, yet often neglected part of the water cycle. Earth's ice, existing in various forms such as sea ice, ice shelves, icebergs, ice sheets, glaciers, lake ice, river ice, snow, and permafrost, even has a special name: the cryosphere.

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Organisms affect the water cycle

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The water cycle defines the process in which water moves continuously above and below the surface of the Earth. Bodies of water, clouds, evaporation and condensation all play a part in the water cycle, but living things also occupy a vital role in this process. Without the contribution of living organisms, water would not disperse across the planet in the way it does today.

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read)

Bodies of water, clouds, evaporation and condensation all play vital roles in the water cycle, but so do living things. Plants, especially trees, contribute to the water cycle via transpiration, where water evaporates from the surface of their leaves. Close to 10 percent of all water enters the water cycle due to plant transpiration. Animals contribute to the water cycle via respiration, perspiration and urination.

To understand the role of living organisms in the water cycle, it helps to understand the basics of the cycle itself. When water evaporates from the world's oceans, lakes and rivers, it turns into water vapor and travels into the atmosphere where it forms into clouds. As the water vapor in the clouds condenses, droplets of rain begin to fall. The rain replenishes lakes and rivers not only by falling directly on them, but by seeping into the ground and forming springs, through a process called infiltration. Groundwater then seeps back into the ocean, where the cycle repeats.

Without the water cycle, freshwater lakes and rivers would not exist and living things would not be able to thrive on land far from the ocean. Living organisms do not just benefit from the water cycle -- they participate in it. The contributions of living organisms to the water cycle are vital.

Plants, particularly trees, contribute greatly to the water cycle because of the processes they use to absorb and release energy. Unlike animals, which get their energy from food, plants convert sunlight into usable energy through photosynthesis. Plants also absorb nutrients and water through their roots.

When a tree absorbs water, it travels throughout its branches to its leaves. Needed for photosynthesis, trees and plants cannot get the energy they need from the sun without water. During photosynthesis, some excess water evaporates from the surface of the leaves, becoming water vapor. The water vapor in the process of transpiration travels into the atmosphere and becomes part of the water cycle, in the same way as evaporated water from lakes, rivers and oceans.

At first glance, it may not seem that plant transpiration contributes that much to the global water cycle. But plants and trees supply a large amount of the world's water via this process. About 10 percent of all water enters the cycle via plant transpiration.

Though they don't contribute as much as plants, animals still supply some of the water present in the water cycle. Animals contribute water mainly through breathing, perspiration and urination.

When animals breathe, their warm lungs fill with air. Inside the lungs, some of that air condenses into water vapor. When an animal exhales, they release more water vapor than they breathed in, which adds to the water present in the water cycle.

Many animals also sweat to cool down. When droplets of sweat evaporate from the surface of an animal's skin, they take a bit of the animal's body heat with them. They also turn into water vapor and enter the water cycle, just like water evaporating from plant leaves.

When animals consume water, they urinate to expel the excess, which then then evaporates and re-enters the water cycle. Even animal dung contains some water which may re-enter the cycle in the same way.

Though trees represent the biggest living contributors to the water cycle, animals also play a valuable role in recycling Earth's water. Without living creatures, the water cycle's effectiveness diminishes, and less water recycles. Though often not included in the explanation of the water cycle, all living organisms contribute to it in their distinctive ways.

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How Do Living Organisms Contribute to the Water Cycle?

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The water cycle defines the process in which water moves continuously above and below the surface of the Earth. Bodies of water, clouds, evaporation and condensation all play a part in the water cycle, but living things also occupy a vital role in this process.

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Water cycle and volcanoes?!

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In a new study, published in the journal Nature, an international team of scientists provide the first conclusive evidence directly linking deep Earth's water cycle with magmatic productivity and earthquake activity.

Water (H2O) and other volatiles (e.g. CO2 and sulphur) that are cycled through the deep Earth have played a key role in the evolution of our planet, including in the formation of continents, the onset of life, the concentration of mineral resources, and the distribution of volcanoes and earthquakes.

Subduction zones, where tectonic plates converge and one plate sinks beneath another, are the most important parts of the cycle - with large volumes of water going in and coming out, mainly through volcanic eruptions. Yet, just how (and how much) water is transported via subduction, and its effect on natural hazards and the formation of natural resources, has historically been poorly understood.

Lead author of the study, Dr George Cooper, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, said:

"As plates journey from where they are first made at mid-ocean ridges to subduction zones, seawater enters the rocks through cracks, faults and by binding to minerals. Upon reaching a subduction zone, the sinking plate heats up and gets squeezed, resulting in the gradual release of some or all of its water. As water is released it lowers the melting point of the surrounding rocks and generates magma. This magma is buoyant and moves upwards, ultimately leading to eruptions in the overlying volcanic arc. These eruptions are potentially explosive because of the volatiles contained in the melt. The same process can trigger earthquakes and may affect key properties such as their magnitude and whether they trigger tsunamis or not."

Exactly where and how volatiles are released and how they modify the host rock remains an area of intense research. Most studies have focused on subduction along the Pacific Ring of Fire. However, this research focused on the Atlantic plate, and more specifically, the Lesser Antilles volcanic arc, located at the eastern edge of the Caribbean Sea.

"This is one of only two zones that currently subduct plates formed by slow spreading. We expect this to be hydrated more pervasively and heterogeneously than the fast spreading Pacific plate, and for expressions of water release to be more pronounced," said Prof. Saskia Goes, Imperial College London.

The Volatile Recycling in the Lesser Antilles (VoiLA) project brings together a large multidisciplinary team of researchers including geophysicists, geochemists and geodynamicists from Durham University, Imperial College London, University of Southampton, University of Bristol, Liverpool University, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the University of Leeds, The Natural History Museum, The Institute de Physique du Globe in Paris, and the University of the West Indies.

"We collected data over two marine scientific cruises on the RRS James Cook, temporary deployments of seismic stations that recorded earthquakes beneath the islands, geological fieldwork, chemical and mineral analyses of rock samples, and numerical modelling," said Dr Cooper.

To trace the influence of water along the length of the subduction zone, the scientists studied boron compositions and isotopes of melt inclusions (tiny pockets of trapped magma within volcanic crystals). Boron fingerprints revealed that the water-rich mineral serpentine, contained in the sinking plate, is a dominant supplier of water to the central region of the Lesser Antilles arc.

"By studying these micron-scale measurements it is possible to better understand large-scale processes. Our combined geochemical and geophysical data provide the clearest indication to date that the structure and amount of water of the sinking plate are directly connected to the volcanic evolution of the arc and its associated hazards," said Prof. Colin Macpherson, Durham University

"The wettest parts of the downgoing plate are where there are major cracks (or fracture zones). By making a numerical model of the history of fracture zone subduction below the islands, we found a direct link to the locations of the highest rates of small earthquakes and low shear wave velocities (which indicate fluids) in the subsurface," said Prof. Saskia Goes.

The history of subduction of water-rich fracture zones can also explain why the central islands of the arc are the largest and why, over geologic history, they have produced the most magma.

"Our study provides conclusive evidence that directly links the water-in and water-out parts of the cycle and its expressions in terms of magmatic productivity and earthquake activity. This may encourage studies at other subduction zones to find such water-bearing fault structures on the subducting plate to help understand patterns in volcanic and earthquake hazards," said Dr Cooper.

"In this research we found that variations in water correlate with the distribution of smaller earthquakes, but we would really like to know how this pattern of water release may affect the potential - and act as a warning system - for larger earthquakes and possible tsunami," said Prof. Colin Macpherson.

Paper:

'Variable water input controls evolution of the Lesser Antilles volcanic arc', by Cooper, G. F., Macpherson, C. G., Blundy, J. D., Maunder, B., Allen, R. W., Goes, S., Collier, J. S, Bie, L., Harmon, N., Hicks, S. P., Iveson, A. A., Prytulak, P., Rietbrock, A., Rychert, C., Davidson J. P. & the VoiLA team in Nature.

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New research reveals how water in the deep Earth triggers earthquakes and tsunamis

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In a new study, published in the journal Nature, an international team of scientists provide the first conclusive evidence directly linking deep Earth's water cycle with magmatic productivity and earthquake activity. Water (H2O) and other volatiles (e.g.

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Wildfires and the water cycle

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Summer marks the traditional beginning of California's fire season, although the warming climate has stretched the season considerably. Until the winter rains arrive, wildfires will burn forests and grasslands throughout the state. Since January 1, about 3,700 fires have consumed more than 111,000 acres of land-outpacing 2017, the most destructive and deadly fire season in state history.

While public safety and economic costs deserve and receive a great deal of attention, wildfires also have consequences for the management of water-including the amount and quality of supply, and the potential for flooding.

Fire can bring short-term water supply benefits by increasing runoff for downstream use. Most precipitation that falls on hillsides is captured by plants and soils and sent back into the atmosphere. By removing vegetation and reducing the ability of soils to hold water, most burns lead to an increase in runoff. The amount of increase depends on the type of vegetation that is burned. In Sierra conifer forests, reducing tree cover by about 40% may result in a 9% increase in water yield. Conversely, burning grasslands leads to negligible increases in water supply.

Managing forests with mechanical thinning and prescribed burning simulates the effects of low- and moderate-severity wildfire-creating opportunities to improve forest health while increasing water supply. But before concluding that forest fires and active management can reliably increase water supply, it's worth noting that increases in water can be short-lived as vegetation rapidly grows back. And in drier forests like those of the southern Sierra Nevada, most downstream users are unlikely to see increased yield s.

Wildfire can also bring some serious water management challenges.

Intense fires remove vegetation that prevents excessive erosion. Soils burned at high severity can also lose the ability to absorb water for a few years after a burn. When rain falls on these fire-ravaged slopes, the fast-moving runoff can erode soils and ash, transporting them into rivers. These flows threaten drinking-water quality and fill water supply and hydropower reservoirs with sediment. Following a series of severe wildfires in the American River headwaters, Placer County Water Agency experienced significant damage to its water supply and hydropower infrastructure, including costly impacts from increasing sediment and debris. The agency is now working with multiple partners to reduce wildfire risk above two reservoirs using prescribed burning and mechanical thinning.

The damaged soils and loss of vegetation following a severe burn can also increase the threat of downstream flooding and landslides. In some cases, these slides can become "debris flows"-fast-moving rivers of mud, rock, and other materials that can take out everything in their path. These are one of the most dangerous types of flash floods in California. The most recent and deadly example of this was in Montecito following the December 2017 Thomas Fire (the largest fire by area in state history). In early January 2018, record-high rainfall fell on the fire-scarred slopes above Montecito. The resulting debris flows killed 23 people and damaged or destroyed 400 homes.

Experts are predicting another year of intense wildfire activity. Water managers in affected regions will need to address the impacts of fire on local water supply and flood hazards, and must also account for such impacts in future planning.

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How Wildfires Affect California's Water Supply - Public Policy Institute of California

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Summer marks the traditional beginning of California's fire season, although the warming climate has stretched the season considerably. Until the winter rains arrive, wildfires will burn forests and grasslands throughout the state. Since January 1, about 3,700 fires have consumed more than 111,000 acres of land-outpacing 2017, the most destructive and deadly fire season in state history.

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Hurricanes and the water cycle

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In the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, we use the term "hurricane" to describe severe storms with high-velocity winds that rotate around a central, low-pressure core. The same type of disturbance in the Northwest Pacific is called a "typhoon" and "cyclones" occur in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.

In order for a hurricane to form, two things must be present: a weather disturbance, such as a thunderstorm, that pulls in warm surface air from all directions and water at the ocean's surface that is at least 80° Fahrenheit (27° Celsius). Because it is the interaction of warm air and warm seawater that spawns these storms, they form over tropical oceans between about 5 and 20 degrees of latitude. At these latitudes, seawater is hot enough to give the storms strength and the rotation of the Earth makes them spin.

Hurricanes start simply with the evaporation of warm seawater, which pumps water into the lower atmosphere. This humid air is then dragged aloft when converging winds collide and turn upwards. At higher altitudes, water vapor starts to condense into clouds and rain, releasing heat that warms the surrounding air, causing it to rise as well. As the air far above the sea rushes upward, even more warm moist air spirals in from along the surface to replace it.

As long as the base of this weather system remains over warm water and its top is not sheared apart by high-altitude winds, it will strengthen and grow. More and more heat and water will be pumped into the air. The pressure at its core will drop further and further, sucking in wind at ever increasing speeds. Over several hours to days, the storm will intensify, finally reaching hurricane status when the winds that swirl around it reach sustained speeds of 74 miles per hour or more.

Eventually, hurricanes turn away from the tropics and into mid-latitudes. Once they move over cold water or over land and lose touch with the hot water that powers them, these storms weaken and break apart.

Recent studies have shown a link between ocean surface temperatures and tropical storm intensity - warmer waters fuel more energetic storms.

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In the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, we use the term "hurricane" to describe severe storms with high-velocity winds that rotate around a central, low-pressure core. The same type of disturbance in the Northwest Pacific is called a "typhoon" and "cyclones" occur in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.