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Learn about how water moves all around our planet.

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Pour yourself a glass of water and take a sip. Did you know that the water you've just swallowed is the same water that wooly mammoths, King Tutankhamun and the first humans drank? That's because Earth has been recycling water for over 4 billion years!

The world's water moves between lakes, rivers, oceans, the atmosphere and the land in an ongoing cycle called - you guessed it! - the water cycle. As it goes through this continuous system, it can be a liquid (water), a gas (vapour) or a solid (ice).

So, are all you budding young geographers ready to learn some splashing new facts? Then join NG KiDS as we take a look at the different stages of the wonderful water cycle...

Energy from the sun heats up the surface of the Earth, causing the temperature of the water in our rivers, lakes and oceans to rise. When this happens, some of the water "evaporates" into the air, turning into a gas called " vapour". Plants and trees also lose water to the atmosphere through their leaves. This process is known as " transpiration ".

As water vapour rises up high into the sky, it cools and turns back into a liquid, forming clouds. This process is called " condensation ". Currents high up in the air move these clouds around the globe.

The water cycle is also known as the "hydrologic cycle".

Precipitation

When too much water has condensed, the water droplets in the clouds become too big and heavy for the air to hold them. And so they fall back down to Earth as rain, snow, hail or sleet, a process known as " precipitation ".

Collection

The fallen precipitation is then "collected" in bodies of water - such as rivers, lakes and oceans - from where it will eventually evaporate back into the air, beginning the cycle all over again. How it is collected, depends on where it lands...

Some will fall directly into lakes, rivers or the sea, from where it will evaporate and begin the cycle all over again.

If the water falls on vegetation, it may evaporate from leaves back into the air, or trickle down to the ground. Some of this water may then be taken up by the plant roots in the earth.

In cold climates, the precipitation may build up on land as snow, ice or glaciers. If temperatures rise, the ice will melt to liquid water and then soak into the ground, or flow into rivers or the ocean.

Water that reaches land directly may flow across the ground and collect in the oceans, rivers or lakes. This water is called " surface run-off ". Some of the precipitation will instead soak (or "infiltrate") into the soil, from where it will slowly move through the ground until eventually reaching a river or the ocean.

And there you have it, gang - the ongoing water cycle!

Water can change from a solid to a gas, without becoming a liquid first. Through this process of "sublimation" our planet"s ice can evaporate directly into the air without melting!

Be sure to check out our water conservation primary resource. Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike, show children 25 ways to help keep our oceans, rivers and streams clean...

Illustration: Getty Images UK

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The Water Cycle! - National Geographic Kids

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Earth has been recycling water for 4 billion years! Learn about the water cycle right here at NG Kids with clear diagrams and pictures.

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Back to the water cycle on the USGS Water Science School.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere truly is the superhighway in the sky that moves water everywhere over the Earth.

The next time you go outside you will be standing in the Earth's atmosphere. The atmosphere is all the air from the bottom of an ant's leg up to where there is no more air-many miles in the sky.

The air outside may look invisible, but it is full of molecules, including water molecules, as water vapor. That big cumulus cloud (full of water) floating in the sky is the water cycle in action.

The water vapor all around you rises up into the sky to become part of a cloud which will float off with the winds, probably looking for a picnic to rain on. A cloud in the atmosphere can move for hundreds of miles before it releases its water as rain or snow. That is how water that evaporates from the ocean one day may end up as rainfall over Ezmerelda's tomato patch in Kansas the next day.

How much does a cloud weigh?

Clouds are made of water, and water has weight, so how can they float? They float because the air below them has weight, too-more weight. Think about oil and water-if you pour oil into water the oil floats to the top of the water. That is because oil is lighter (less dense) than water; the same thing applies to clouds in the sky.

What fools you is that the water vapor in the air in a clear, blue sky is invisible, and there is not enough water vapor to condense into clouds. Water vapor contains water molecules-one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. You know hydrogen is the lightest of all elements, and, even when combined with an oxygen atom, the hydrogen acts like little "hot air balloons" that makes the vapor lighter than the molecules in the surrounding dry air. Water vapor naturally floats upwards, eventually condensing and forming clouds.

And, a cloud weighs ... According to NOAA, your average cumulus cloud one kilometer (0.62 miles) on a side will weigh about 998 million kilograms (2.2 billion pounds). That is equal to about 22 million (22,000,000) kids weighing 100 pounds each.

Learn more: Atmosphere | Condensation | "Little cloud that could" | Rainbows
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Fog and dew

Fog contains very tiny liquid water particles, like a cloud, and floats, like a cloud. Actually, fog IS a cloud, but one that swirls around your feet instead of high in the sky.

Fog forms when air containing invisible water vapor encounters cooler temperatures (next to the ground) and some of the water vapor condenses out into liquid water droplets. In this picture, as the day warms the air next to the ground will warm, too, and the fog particles will again evaporate back into invisible water vapor.

In the case of dew, water vapor in the air encounters a substance that has become cooler, such as the grass at night or even your glass of iced tea. The cooler temperatures causes the water vapor in the air to condense into liquid water-dew.

Fog and dew can join forces to become an intricate part on the water cycle in certain locations. On the island of Maui in the Hawaiian Islands, fog condenses into dew and drips onto the ground, contributing a significant amount of water to the forests during the non-rainy months.

Groundwater flow

If you pour a glass of water onto the ground it usually sinks right in ( infiltration), so you can imagine how much water sinks into the ground during a major storm ( Find out here). Here in Atlanta, Ga, USA it rains about 50 inches/year. Over a 100 square mile (10 miles by 10 miles) area, that means 87,000 billion gallons of water falls, with much of it soaking into the ground to become groundwater.

Yes, water below your feet is moving all the time, but, no, if you have heard there are rivers flowing below ground, that is not true. Water underground moves, due to gravity, downward and sideways. Groundwater serves many purposes in nature: keeping plants alive, filling aquifers, from which people can withdraw water, providing water to rivers and lakes, and eventually flowing into the oceans.

You may know that water's chemical composition is H ₂ O. A water molecule contains 2 hydrogen (H) atoms and 1 oxygen (O) atom.

One molecule of water in your glass won't quench your thirst, though. You need LOTS of water molecules, trillions of them. At normal temperatures all those individual water molecules like to stick together and form a liquid (the water in your glass).

Because of the way that the hydrogen and oxygen atoms exist in a water molecule, one water molecule is attracted to another water molecule. The opposite sides of a water molecule stick to each other just as opposite sides (poles) of magnets do.

Like a magnet, one side of the water molecule (the side with the oxygen atom) has a negative electrical charge while the other side, where the hydrogen atoms sit, has a positive charge. Since opposite charges attract each other, water molecules attract each other. So much so that when trillions of them get together, they often start sticking to each other and, thus, you have liquid water.

Ice and snow

Ice and glaciers are part of the water cycle, even though the water in them moves very slowly. The amount of ice on the Earth goes up and down as the world's climate cools and warms over thousands of years.

Lucky for us we're now in a warmer phase of the Earth's history, but the last Ice Age was only 18,000 years ago. At that time, ice covered the northern part of North America.

So much liquid water was locked up in ice back then that the oceans were about 400 feet (122 meters) lower than they are today. If all land ice melted today the seas would rise about 230 feet (70 meters).

Ice and glaciers are still very prevalent today, as you can see by looking at a satellite image of Greenland (now, why is it called "Green"land?). Glacial ice covers 10-11 percent of all land. In fact, most of the world's freshwater, about 68 percent, is locked up in ice, snow, and glaciers.

Ice caps influence the weather, too. The color white reflects sunlight (heat) more than darker colors, and as ice is so white, sunlight is reflected back out to the sky, which helps to create weather patterns.

Sublimation

When rain falls where you live, much of it disappears from evaporation, right? But what about at the top of Mt. Everest? The elevation is over 29,000 feet and temperatures at the peak are never above freezing, so it never rains there. It does snow a lot. We all know that snow melts, but if it never rises above freezing, how does snow not build up forever on Mt. Everest?

As this picture shows, winds, often at hurricane force, blow tons of snow off the peak. But a part of the water cycle called "sublimation" is also at work. Just as evaporation turns liquid water into water vapor gas, sublimation turns frozen water directly into water vapor gas, skipping the melting phase into a liquid.

Also, as with evaporation, the sun's heat causes sublimation to work, and on top of Mt. Everest on a clear day, the sun is very strong and provides energy for sublimation, even though it is below freezing.

Sublimation doesn't just occur on mountain peaks. If there is snow and ice buildup in your neighborhood then on a sunny and dry day sublimation is happening there, too.

Sunbathing - evaporation

If this drip sitting on a desert island is hoping to get a tan, she'd better hurry because the water cycle is not going to let her hang around here very long. A water drop laying in the sun on a hot day is just asking to be evaporated by the sun.

As soon as she sat down in her chair, the sun's heat began to evaporate her into water vapor gas, and so she will float off as millions of vapor particles up into the sky. The drip won't be upset, though, as her water vapor will eventually recombine to form clouds and then rain which will runoff the land into rivers which flow into the oceans, again. She can be back sunbathing by the next day.

Volcanic steam

Volcanoes cannot exactly get angry, but as this picture of Mt. St. Helens, USA in 2005 shows, they really do "blow off steam". It may not be a big component of the world's water cycle, but volcanoes and geysers do release steam into the air, steam which rises and becomes clouds.

What is interesting about the steam coming from a volcano is that the components of water are coming out from deep inside the earth, which is on the far edges of the water cycle. At a certain depth below the land surface you won't find liquid water, due to the tremendous temperatures and pressures. But the molten rock and material making up magma deep in the earth contains chemicals that later do form water molecules.

The World's Water

Where is Earth's Water?

In the first bar, notice how only 2.5% of all Earth's water is freshwater, which is what life needs to survive. Over 96% of all water is found in the oceans.

The middle bar shows the breakdown on that 2.5% which is freshwater. Almost all of it is locked up in ice and in the ground. Only 1.3% of all freshwater (which was only 2.5% of all water) is surface water, such as lakes and rivers, which serves most of life's needs.

The right side bar shows the breakdown of only the surface freshwater, which was only 1.3% of all freshwater. Most of surface freshwater is locked up in ice, and another 20% is in lakes. Notice the 0.46% of surface freshwater that is in rivers. Sounds like a tiny amount, but rivers are where humans get a large portion of their water from.

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Interactive Water Cycle Diagram for Kids (Advanced)

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The Water Cycle for Kids, from the USGS Water Science School.

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Transportation is water moving in clouds

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this is what the water cycle looks like !

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The sun makes heat and when water gets ultra hot and it evaporates, turning into a gat that is invisible

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Did you know that earth recycles water for up to four billion years!

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condensation is when water vapour rises up high into the sky, and turns into a cloud.

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Evaporation happens when a liquid turns into a gas. It can be easily visualized when rain puddles “disappear” on a hot day or when wet clothes dry in the sun. In these examples, the liquid water is not actually vanishing—it is evaporating into a gas, called water vapor.

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Did you know that 1.7% of earths water comes from arctics,glaciers and some cold places!?

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Evaporation works when water evaporates

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this is how the water cycle works

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precipitation is when cloud is heavy and needs to blow up so it rain

haha

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precipitatoin happens when the clouds get to heavy with water that they burst giving out either rain, hail, snow or sleet

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its when water from rain runs off of hills and collects into a big puddle this is how floods happen!

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precipotaton is rain

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run of is when water falls down the hills

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water is moving in the clouds and the cloud is moving!!!!

every thing is movingg

wow

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Evaporation is when water turns to air.

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water that we drink could contain the first drips of water in the world

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Evaporation is when water from the ocean turns into water vapour and goes up into the clouds.

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Collection is collecting the water that fell on the hill into lakes

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run off is when it rains some water evaporates, but the other water heads down hill. this is called run of. it can be a river or just water going down hill!

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water moves on a hill and it goes to a collection scource

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When clouds get heavy and burstout with water we call rain!

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Condensation is when a gas turns to a cloud

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water runs off a hill and it goes to lake

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what are hurricanes

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When water vapour from evaporation moves into the sky we call it that because it transports from one place to another

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transpiration is just like evaporation but it happens from the water of trees

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Transpiration is taking some of the trees from the ground

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Another way of transportation is the trees collects the air and rising up into the clouds.

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i love water cycle it is good for us iloveeeeeee

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The Water Cycle | The Dr. Binocs Show | Learn Videos For Kids

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did you know water cycle was another name for hydrologic cycle

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Transportation is taking the liquid from the sea to the clouds

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when they get the liquid the clouds will be bigger

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...IS WHEN WATER MOVES FROM NE PLACE TO ANOTHER

WOW WOW WOW!!!

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VAPOUR COMS FROM TREES AND IT EVAPERATES

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collection is when rain falls and the rain splashes into the river and when the river is flowing, it collects near lakes.

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precipitation is when the clouds have to much liquid it all falls to the mountain :] ^_^

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runoff is when water runs off mountains into the river,ocean and the lake

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IT IS ACTUALLY EVAPOTRANSPIRATION!

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and it goes to the clouds

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Did you know water cycle was another name for hydrologic cycle

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Did you know? That clouds are made of water because in the ocean or the sea,the big amount of water goes up to the air and if the cloud sucks it up , the cloud gets more heavier and heavier , the cloud couldn't hold more water and the big amount of water gets splash, and start's to go down the floor like a waterslide.............. SPLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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ONE REASON VEGETATION MAKES WATER IS THE FARMER GIVES THE PLANT WATR

AAHH

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Starts in an area with water and slowly turns into wATER vapour and rises to the sky

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runoff works when is raining and the water pours and forms into a puddle

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Transportation is when the clouds move from one place to another.

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EVAPORATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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water colects in lakes

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collection is the rain falls down to mountain or anywhere else and near the lake

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WATER GOES INTO A COLLECTION SORCE WHICH IS A LAKE, RIVER, AND SEA. IT CAN ALSO GO INTO A POND OR A BUCKET OR PAIL THAT HAS BEEN PLACED OUTSIDE

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this is transportation. clouds moving

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Water Cycle | How the Hydrologic Cycle Works

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condensation is when water vapour makes clouds.

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the water will go back to the sea

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RAIN CANNOT ECCED THIS ALTITUDE:

18,000 FEET

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Precipitation is when rain falls but when the cloud gets too heavy it falls like rain, hail and snow

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precipitation is when there is water on the floor and when is dry it will go up the sky and when the cloud is too heavy filled up with too much water it will rain or maybe come out snow

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water is going up and if cloud is heavy it raining

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if it rains the river will get full of water and the water will go down the sea

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Did you know? When cloud can not hold water, water becames snow or rain.