What is the Water Cycle?

Have you ever wondered what the water cycle is?

The water cycle or hydrologic cycle is a continuous process where water evaporates, travels into the air and becomes part of a cloud, then falls down to earth as precipitation. It then evaporates again. This repeats again and again in a never-ending cycle. Water keeps moving and changing from a solid to a liquid to a gas, over and over again.

Evaporation is when the sun heats up water in rivers or lakes or the ocean and turns it into vapor or steam. The water vapor or steam leaves the rivers, lakes or oceans and rises into the air. Transpiration is just the same but with plants.

Condensation is the process by which water vapor in the air is changed into liquid water. Condensation is crucial to the water cycle because it is responsible for the formation of clouds. These clouds may produce precipitation, which is when water returns to the Earth's surface within the water cycle. Condensation is the opposite of evaporation.

Precipitation is water released from clouds in the form of rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow, or hail. It is the part in the water cycle which provides for the delivery of water to the Earth. Most precipitation falls as rain.

Accumulation of the precipitation is the final stage of the water cycle before it starts all over again. It accumulates back into lakes, rivers, and oceans. If it ends up on land with no source of water near it will soak into the earth and become ground water that plants and animals use.

The water cycle has four main parts to it: evaporation,transpiration, condensation, precipitation and accumulation. The water cycle is very important for humans, animals and plants because without the water cycle none of these living things wouldn’t be here today.

By Ella Littlejohn and Drew Cullen