How old is the water you're drinking?
WATER is old... very old!
We think water is produced by big, heavy cloud but we are wrong.
The water coming out of your tap may have fallen from a storm last week but has been around for a lot longer.
The water you are seeing has been around since time began on this big green and blue rock we live on. Since dinosaurs walked the earth.
Water is a finite source and travels in a cycle:
Evaporation (and transpiration)
As water heats up it evaporates. This is caused by the water molecules. Water, as we know it, is free flowing and the molecules, although bonded, have no fixed position. Once the sun heats up the water the molecules lose their bonding and become vaporised.
Condensation
This water vapour rises through the atmosphere and as it cools it bonds to form clouds. As these clouds build they cool and once heavy with water vapour they start to precipitate.
Precipitation
This happens when the clouds fill with water. This water is realised and falls back to the earth as rain. Water vapour picked up in one region may travel hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometres before falling back to the earth.
Collection
When it rains the water may fall into oceans, lakes, rivers or land. If it falls on a waterway the cycle begins again but if it falls on land it may percolate down through the sub-soil to sit in aquifers for another couple of million years before making its way to the surface.
