Waters cycle

The cyclic movement of water from the atmosphere to the Earth and back to the atmosphere through various processes is called as water cycle.
Different steps of water cycle include evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation and surface run-off.
a) Evaporation - The water present on the surface of oceans evaporates by the sun’s heat. This process of conversion of water from liquid state to vapour state is called evaporation. Evaporation also takes place from wet clothes, fields, ponds, lakes and rivers.
b)Transpiration - Plants take in water from the soil to prepare their own food and also for other life processes. They release excess water into air in the form of water vapour by the process of transpiration.
c) Condensation - The evaporated water is carried away by warm air. As the warm air moves higher from the surface of the Earth, it starts to cool down. This water vapour condenses to form tiny water droplets which float in air to form clouds or fog.
d) Precipitation - All these droplets collect to form bigger drops of water. Bigger water drops come down ads rain by the process of precipitation. If the air is too cold, the water drops can become snow or hail and may settle on the top of a mountain. When these snow or hail melts, they can become part of a river or a stream.
e) Surface run-off – Some amount of rain water is absorbed by the soil and settles down as ground water. Most of the rain water flows down the hills and mountains to collect into rivers, lakes or streams. Rain also washes away the topmost layer of the soil into water bodies.
This circulation of water through all these different factors is called as water cycle.