The water cycle describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. It involves six main processes: evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, surface runoff, and accumulation. Evaporation turns water from oceans, rivers, and lakes into vapor, and transpiration occurs when water evaporates from plants. Condensation occurs when water vapor in the air cools and turns back into a liquid in clouds. Precipitation results when clouds become too heavy and water falls as rain, snow, sleet or hail. Surface runoff transports precipitation from land to streams and rivers. Accumulation occurs when water flows into oceans, lakes, and seas, restarting the cycle.

1. The Water Cycle By: greendragon

3. What exactly is the water cycle? Well the Earth has a limited amount of water. The water is used over and over again. Therefore, the water cycle is the continuous movement of water from the oceans to the air and land and then back to the oceans. There are six important processes that make up the water cycle. These are: Evaporation Transpiration Condensation Precipitation Surface Runoff Accumulation

4. Evaporation As the sun heats up the water in rivers, lakes or oceans, liquid water becomes water vapor. The water changes from a liquid to a gas. This is called the evaporation process.

5. Transpiration Water does not only evaporate from bodies of water, it can evaporate from plants. Transpiration is the process in which the water in plants evaporate into the atmosphere. Water is first absorbed by the plant’s roots. The water moves from the roots through the stems to the leaves. When the water reaches the leaves, some of it will evaporate into the atmosphere.

6. Condensation As the water vapor, from the evaporation and transpiration processes, cools it changes from a gas back into a liquid. The water vapor in the air turns into liquid water. Condensing water forms clouds in the sky. This process is called condensation .

7. Precipitation Precipitation will occur when there is too much condensed water in the clouds. The clouds get heavy and water is released back to the earth. This can be in the form of rain , snow , sleet or hail .

8. Surface Runoff When water returns to the surface of the earth in the form of snow, rain, sleet and hail, it can land in various places. The process in which precipitation runs off the surface of the land and flows down hill into streams, rivers, ponds and lakes is called surface runoff .

9. Accumulation Small streams will flow into larger streams then into rivers and eventually the water flows into the oceans, seas and lakes which result in accumulation .

10. Restarting the Water Cycle As you know, the water cycle is a never ending process. The water on earth is used over and over again. The water cycle constantly repeats itself over and over again.

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