Water Cycle

The water cycle is the set of natural processes that move liquid water around the planet. Water evaporates from oceans, lakes and soils, rises as vapor, cools to form clouds, falls back as rain or snow, and then flows over land in streams, rivers and eventually returns to the seas. Along the way it can seep into the ground to become groundwater, be taken up by plants, or freeze into ice at the poles. Each of these steps is linked by physical forces such as heat from the sun, gravity, and atmospheric pressure, creating a continuous loop that never truly stops.