The water cycle includes evaporation or sublimation, condensation, precipitation, transpiration, surface runoff or snowmelt, and subsurface water flow. It is driven by the sun's energy and involves the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the Earth's surface.
The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, is driven by the sun's energy and involves several processes.
Firstly, evaporation and sublimation occur when water from the land and oceans is heated by the sun and changes from a liquid or frozen state to water vapor.
This vapor then rises into the atmosphere.
Once in the atmosphere, this water vapor undergoes condensation, where it cools and forms droplets that gather into clouds.
Eventually, when these droplets become too heavy, they fall back to the earth's surface as precipitation, either as rain, sleet, snow, or hail.
Some of the water that falls as rain is used by plants and released back into the atmosphere through a process called transpiration.
The rest of the rainwater may flow over the surface of the land, forming surface runoff, or it may seep into the ground, a process known as subsurface water flow.
Surface runoff and snowmelt eventually make their way into rivers and oceans, completing the water cycle.