The water cycle is the continuous movement of water. Water is changing its state, from liquid, solid, and gas repeatedly. Life on earth depends on the water cycle.

 

       Water on the earth's surface is evaporated into water vapor by the sun's heat. The vapor, as well as vapor from  evapotranspiration is carried into the atmosphere by rising air currents. When the vapor is carried into cooler air, it condenses into clouds.

 

       Eventually, the vapor collides and grows. This causes the vapor to fall as precipitation. Percipitation either lands back on land or into oceans. Water that falls onto the land flows over the ground as surface runoff. Some runoff enters rivers, which carry the water to oceans. Runoff and ground water seepage accumalte as freshwater lakes.

 

       Lots of water soaks into the ground as infiltration. Some of the water that gets soaked into the ground replenishes aquifiers, which store large amounts of freshwater for a long period of time. Water can either seep back into the ocean and other surface bodies of water, become absorbed by plants and end up as  evapotranspiration, or become freshwater springs. Over time, the water will return to the ocean, restarting the cycle.