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Precipitation is a general term for when one substance settles out of another. More specifically when a solute settles out of a solvent. I am assuming you are asking about precipitation that we know as rain.
Heat evaporates water and that water vapour becomes a solute in the solvent called the atmophere. When the atmosphere can't hold any more water vapour, the vapour condenses back into liquid water and falls to earth. The key idea is this. Colder air won't hold as much water as warmer air. What this means is that when air cools, at night or when it rises into a cooler environment higher in the atmosphere, its ability to hold water decreases and this is what most often causes water to condense into liquid and "fall" (precipitate) out of the air.
One other condition that needs to be met is that there are nuclei; tiny microscopic particles for the water to condense on. Usually these are dust particles or pollution.
So, short answer. Air cools and loses the ability to hold water vapour. The water condenses on a nuclei, becomes a water droplet and grows too heavy to stay suspended in the atmosphere. So it falls the the ground.
Hope this helps.
Wiki User
∙ 14y ago
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Minerals form from bodies of water due to the process of?
Precipitation
Is snow considered precipitation?
Yes. Snow is a form of frozen precipitation.
What is a form of precipitation?
Dew
Is any form of water that falls from clouds and reaches the ground?
In solid form: sleet, hail, snow In liquid form: rain, drizzle, fog
How does precipitation eventually return to the oceans?
Precipitation. Continued cooling of the water vapor in the clouds causes water droplets to grow. Eventually, droplets join other droplets and form drops too heavy to stay in the clouds. The heavy droplets begin to fall as rain. The movement of raindrops from the atmosphere to the Earth is precipitation. Snow may form instead of raindrops if the water vapor condenses below the freezing point.Some areas lose more water to evaporation than they gain as precipitation. Other locations receive more precipitation than they lose to evaporation. Whatever the form of precipitation, water lost by evaporation over the entire surface of the Earth equals the amount of water falling as precipitation.
What causes your biome to develop or form?
temperature, elevation, latitude, precipitation
Minerals form from bodies of water due to the process of?
Precipitation
What process causes dissolved substances to be left behind to form minerals after water in lakes or ponds evaporates?
Precipitation causes dissolved substances to be left behind to form minerals after water in lakes or ponds evaporates.
What causes precipatation in the water cycle?
The condensation of water vapor in the atmosphere causes precipitation. It precipitates in the form of rain, snow, sleet etc.
What chemical reaction causes precipitation?
This is a precipitation reaction.
What process causes dissolve substances to be left behind to form minerals after water in lakes or ponds evaporate?
precipitation
What process causes dissolved substances to be left behind to form minerals after water in or ponds evaporates?
Precipitation causes dissolved substances to be left behind to form minerals after water in lakes or ponds evaporates.
What process causes dissolved substances to be left behind to form minerals after water in lake or ponds evaporates?
Precipitation causes dissolved substances to be left behind to form minerals after water in lakes or ponds evaporates.
Is hail precipitation?
Yes, hail is a form of precipitation.
What causes clouds and precipitation?
Evaporation. When ground water evaporates it turns in to water molecules. the molecules condense and form a cloud when the water in the cloud becomes too heavy the water fall in some form of precipitation. (i.e. rain, snow, sleet, hale...)
How does precipitation affect climate?
If the precipitation is increasing, causes to have more flood and affects all living organism and causes some destroy too.
The most common form of precipitation is?
Cyclonic (frontal) precipitation
