You've Been Misled About The Water Cycle

2025-08-07

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In school, you probably learned about the water cycle with a diagram. The problem is…it’s wrong – or at the very least, pretty misleading.

LEARN MORE

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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:

- Aquifer: a body of permeable rock which can contain or transmit groundwater.

- Confined aquifer: an aquifer below the land surface that is saturated with water. Layers of impermeable material are both above and below the aquifer.

- Freshwater: naturally occurring water that is not salty, and is suitable for consumption if clean or processed.

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CREDITS

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Cameron Duke | Script Writer, Narrator and Director

Arcadi Garcia i Rius | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation

Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

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Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke

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REFERENCES

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“1D Compaction Modeling of Subsidence in California’s San Joaquin Valley.” The Center for Groundwater Evaluation and Management, Stanford University, 2017, https://gemcenter.stanford.edu/1d-compaction-modeling-subsidence-californias-san-joaquin-valley

Abbott, Benjamin W., et al. “Human Domination of the Global Water Cycle Absent from Depictions and Perceptions.” Nature Geoscience, vol. 12, no. 7, 10 June 2019, pp. 533–540, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0374-y

“The Water Cycle (PNG) | U.S. Geological Survey.” https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/water-cycle-png

US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “What Is Subsidence?” Noaa.gov, 2019, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/subsidence.html

Woessner, William W., and Eileen P. Poeter. “6.3 Confined Aquifers.” Books.gw-Project.org, 21 Aug. 2020, https://books.gw-project.org/hydrogeologic-properties-of-earth-materials-and-principles-of-groundwater-flow/chapter/confined-aquifers/

Special thanks to Dr. John van Stan and Dr. Travis Swanson.