Water Cycle

Energy source that causes liquid to evaporate into vapor gas, which rises.

When water that falls from the clouds as rain, snow, hail or sleet, collects in the oceans, rivers, lakes, streams.

Naturally occurring water on Earth's surface in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, icebergs, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers and streams, and underground as groundwater in aquifers and underground streams. Fresh water is generally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts.

Surface runoff produced from melting snow.

The flow of water in a stream or river.

The conversion of a vapor or gas to a liquid. Clouds form.

The process of turning from liquid into vapor.

The envelope of gases surrounding the earth.

Rain, snow, sleet, or hail that falls to the ground.

The process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and other surfaces and by transpiration from plants.

Freshwater stored in frozen form.

Groundwater is water that is found underground in cracks and spaces in the soil, sand and rocks. An area where water fills these spaces is called a phreatic zone or saturated zone. Groundwater is stored in and moves slowly through the layers of soil, sand and rocks.

The process by which precipitation or water soaks into subsurface soils and moves into rocks through cracks and pore spaces.

The movement of water through the atmosphere, specifically from over the oceans to over land. Some of the earth's moisture transport is visible as clouds, which consist of ice crystals and/or tiny water droplets.

Water that flows over the land surface. Runoff that occurs on surfaces before reaching a channel is also called overland flow.