Water is a Magic Substance

[Mike]

I have often wondered about water, and how it acts!

Without fresh water, we would not be able to survive,
yet over 70% of the World is covered by seawater, which
is salt water and not good for us to survive without some
work to remove the salt.

The seawater evaporates to the clouds and falls as rain,
which is fresh water,

Water flows downhill, after starting as a stream high up
a hill and goes all the way to the sea, how does it get up
the hill, to begin its journey.

I saw a bit of TV yesterday, people were in a cave, exploring
and there was an underground stream/river, flowing freely,
presumably, downhill.

The Niagara Falls, are said to flow at a rate of 1 million gallons
an hour, how does that not empty Lake Ontario?

This is a puzzle, I don't know if it is centrifugal force, caused by
the spinning of the Globe, if it was then the underground stream
in the cave would flow along the roof of the cave.

Do any of you have an explanation, to help my old head understand
this conundrum?

Mike.

 

[horseless carriage]

The Water Cycle Path
The cycle begins on the land with rain, snow, or other forms of precipitation falling from clouds when water droplets become heavy enough.
The water that falls on land flows over the surface, as surface runoff, and collects in small streams. These streams join to form larger rivers that flow downhill, collecting more water along the way.
The rivers eventually carry the water back to the oceans and seas, where it is stored in vast quantities known as accumulation. The sun's heat then warms the surface water, turning some of it into an invisible gas called water vapour, a process called evaporation. Water also enters the atmosphere from plants through a process called transpiration.
The warm, light water vapour rises into the atmosphere. As it reaches higher, cooler altitudes, it cools down and turns back into tiny liquid water droplets. These droplets cluster together with millions of others to form the clouds we see in the sky; this process is known as condensation.
As more and more water droplets condense and join, they become larger and heavier. Eventually, they become too heavy to remain suspended in the air and fall back to Earth as precipitation, that is, rain, snow, sleet, or hail and the cycle starts again.
This continuous movement ensures that water is constantly recycled and available for all life on Earth.
In urban and suburban areas, flushed water, we call sewage, travels through a network of pipes to a wastewater treatment facility. The facility cleans the water to remove contaminants before safely discharging the treated effluent into local bodies of water like rivers and lakes. From there, it evaporates and precipitates as part of the natural cycle. Think about that next time you pour yourself a glass of tap water.
In Victorain times water was so mistrusted that beer was the regular thirst quencher. A pint of beer is about 90% to 96% water but that water had been sterilised. The 19th century saw widespread contamination of water sources with sewage, which led to frequent, deadly outbreaks of waterborne diseases like cholera and typhoid.