Evaporation
The sun warms the surface of the sea and water turns to vapour, rising into the air. Most of the vapour in the atmosphere comes from the oceans.
Education example
Read-only showcaseThe water cycle, stage by stage
An illustration whose regions are clouds, arrows and a river, each opening a sheet below.
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Everything on this diagram
The same content as the picture, as text: every part and what it says when you open it.
Transpiration
Plants draw water up from the soil through their roots and release it as vapour from their leaves.
Condensation
Rising air cools, and its vapour condenses on tiny particles of dust and salt into the droplets that make up clouds.
Precipitation
When cloud droplets grow heavy enough they fall: as rain, or as snow, sleet or hail when the air is cold enough.
Snow and ice
Water can be held for months or years as snowpack and glaciers, and released as meltwater when the weather warms.
Surface runoff
Rain and meltwater that the ground cannot soak up flow over the surface into streams and rivers, and on towards the sea.
Infiltration
Some water soaks into the ground, moving down through the soil and into the rock beneath.
Groundwater
Water filling the spaces in soil and rock below the water table. It moves slowly, feeding springs and rivers and seeping towards the sea.
Oceans
The oceans hold nearly all of the Earth's water, and it is from their surface that most evaporation happens.
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