1. Evaporation: Water from oceans, lakes, rivers, and soil evaporates and turns into water vapor, rising into the atmosphere.
2. Condensation: The water vapor in the atmosphere condenses into tiny droplets or ice crystals, forming clouds.
3. Precipitation: When the droplets or ice crystals in clouds become too heavy to remain suspended in the air, they fall as precipitation. This includes rain, snow, sleet, or hail, depending on temperature and other atmospheric conditions.
4. Infiltration and Runoff: When rain falls on land, it either infiltrates the soil or becomes runoff. Infiltrated water becomes groundwater, which can eventually resurface as springs, rivers, or seeps. Runoff water flows over the land surface and can collect in streams, rivers, lakes, or oceans.
5. Evaporation and Transpiration: The water that has fallen as precipitation can evaporate again from the land surface, bodies of water, and plant transpiration (the process by which plants release water vapor through their leaves).
Through these processes, water continuously cycles on Earth, but its total amount remains essentially constant. Precipitation replenishes the water that is lost through evaporation and transpiration, maintaining a balance in the water cycle. Therefore, the Earth does not get new water every time it rains; instead, it redistributes existing water.
