Where did the change begin?
Labs / Geography
Drive the Water Cycle
This little world runs the whole water cycle in front of you. Push the temperature up and the sun pulls vapor off the ocean; that vapor rises, condenses into clouds, and falls as rain that runs downhill, soaks into the ground, and drains back to the sea. Switch on "Tag a drop" and click the scene to follow one particle around the loop.
Labs / Geography / Drive the Water Cycle
Drive the Water Cycle
This little world runs the whole water cycle in front of you. Push the temperature up and the sun pulls vapor off the ocean; that vapor rises, condenses into clouds, and falls as rain that runs downhill, soaks into the ground, and drains back to the sea. Switch on "Tag a drop" and click the scene to follow one particle around the loop.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Geography explains how places, people, and Earth systems affect one another. This model lets you change one factor and watch its effects spread across space.
Explore
Try the model
Ocean 50%Atmos 30%Ground 10%Ice 0%Evap 0.0/sRain 0.0/sDrop —Where off
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- Crank the temperature to maximum. Where does all that ocean water end up — and how fast does the atmosphere fill?
- Pick the Polar preset and wait. Why does the ice reservoir keep growing instead of raining straight back to the sea?
- Set humidity near zero but leave the sun hot. Vapor rises, so why do so few clouds ever form?
- Tag a drop in the ocean. How many different phases does it pass through before it returns to the sea?
- Turn the rain slider all the way down. What happens to the atmosphere reservoir, and is that a stable state?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Connect the pattern to place: identify where the change begins, where its effects appear, and which process links those locations.
Check
Before you leave
What spatial pattern appeared?
Which process connects the cause and effect?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.