The water cycle describes how water moves between oceans, air, soil, rivers, groundwater and ice.
Water evaporates from oceans, lakes and soil. Plants also release water vapour through transpiration.
As air cools, vapour forms droplets or ice crystals. These can later fall as rain, snow or other precipitation.
On land, water runs off, soaks into the ground, reaches aquifers, rivers or the ocean. There is no single route.
Water moves continuously between surface, atmosphere and ground.
1. Sunlight warms water and evaporation sends water vapour into the air.
2. Higher in the atmosphere, cooling turns part of that vapour into tiny droplets: condensation and clouds.
3. When droplets or ice crystals grow large enough, precipitation returns water to the surface.
4. Water then flows, infiltrates the ground or is stored before the cycle continues.
A water molecule can move quickly from ocean to air and back as rain, or remain for a long time in a glacier or aquifer. The cycle is a network of paths, not one fixed loop.