Condensation is when a gas becomes a liquid. It happens when a gas, like water vapor, cools down. Photo from: Wikimedia Commons. Evaporation and condensation are two processes through which matter changes from one state to another.

Water is a liquid at room temperature, but becomes a solid (called ice) if it is cooled down. The same water turns into a gas (called water vapor) if it is heated up. The changes only happen when the substance reaches a particular temperature. Water turns to ice at 32ºF (0ºC).

Freezing, or solidification, is a phase transition in which a liquid turns into a solid when its temperature is lowered to or below its freezing point. Most liquids freeze by crystallization, the formation of a crystalline solid from the uniform liquid.

When a liquid changes into a solid, it is called solidification.

Common changes of state include melting, freezing, sublimation, deposition, condensation, and vaporization.

The two main way to change the physical state are by heating and cooling. Explanation: The physical state of matter can be changed from solid to liquid or gas by heating.]

VAPORIZATION When water reaches its boiling point of 100ºC, water molecules are moving so fast that they break free of the attractions that hold them together in the liquid state. The result is vaporization— the liquid be-comes a gas.

Deposition is the phase transition in which gas transforms into solid without passing through the liquid phase. The reverse of deposition is sublimation and hence sometimes deposition is called desublimation.

Sublimation Examples

• “Dry ice” or solid carbon dioxide sublimes.
• Snow and ice can sublime in the winter months without melting.
• Moth balls sublime.
• Frozen foods will sublime and you will find ice crystals inside of the box or bag. Related Links: Examples. Science Examples.

Under certain circumstances, gas can transform directly into a solid. This process is called deposition. Water vapor to ice – Water vapor transforms directly into ice without becoming a liquid, a process that often occurs on windows during the winter months.

Desublimation or deposition is the phase change from gas directly to solid, with no intermediate liquid phase. Desublimation is the reverse process of sublimation.

WHAT CAUSES DESUBLIMATION? Desublimation is caused by a drastic loss in thermal energy from the surrounding gas due to the presence of a much cooler surface. For example, frost formation occurs on window surfaces during the winter seasons.

: the condition of temperature and pressure under which the gaseous, liquid, and solid phases of a substance can exist in equilibrium.

Examples include beaches, deltas, glacial moraines, sand dunes and salt domes. In severely cold temperatures frost will form on windows because the water vapor in the air comes into contact with a window and immediately forms ice without ever forming liquid water.

Types of depositional environments

• Alluvial – type of Fluvial deposite.
• Aeolian – Processes due to wind activity.
• Fluvial – processes due to moving water, mainly streams.
• Lacustrine – processes due to moving water, mainly lakes.

The most typical example of deposition would be frost. Frost is the deposition of water vapour from humid air or air containing water vapour on to a solid surface. Solid frost is formed when a surface, for example a leaf, is at a temperature lower than the freezing point of water and the surrounding air is humid.

Deposition is the geological process in which sediments, soil and rocks are added to a landform or landmass. Wind, ice, water, and gravity transport previously weathered surface material, which, at the loss of enough kinetic energy in the fluid, is deposited, building up layers of sediment.

Slower moving water erodes material more slowly. If water is moving slowly enough, the sediment being carried may settle out. This settling out, or dropping off, of sediment is deposition. The curves are called meanders because they slowly “wander” over the land. You can see how this happens in Figure below.

Water flowing over Earth’s surface or underground causes erosion and deposition. When water slows down, it starts depositing sediment, starting with the largest particles first. Runoff erodes the land after a heavy rain. It picks up sediment and carries most of it to bodies of water.

Deposition is the dropping of sediment by wind, water, ice, or gravity. Sediment is created through the process of weathering, carried away through the process of erosion, and then dropped in a new location through the process of deposition. When wind and water slow down, they drop the sediments they are carrying.

Formation of cracks in rocks. Moving of small rocks and sediment. Settling of rock pieces in new locations.

But the most powerful erosive force on earth is not wind but water, which causes erosion in its solid form — ice-and as a liquid. Streams — from tiny creeks to huge rivers — carry tons of eroded earth every year.

Wind