Discover how water travels in a never-ending loop around our planet. Watch the sun heat ocean water into vapor, see clouds form high in the cool sky, observe rain and snow fall on mountains, and follow rivers as they flow back to the sea.
The Sun warms water in oceans and lakes, turning liquid water into invisible water vapor that floats up into the sky.
The water you drink today might be the exact same water molecules that dinosaurs drank millions of years ago!
Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection, and weather science tips.
Earth has a fixed amount of water that has been recycled for billions of years through the continuous water cycle (hydrologic cycle).
Solar energy powers Evaporation (liquid to gas), cooling atmosphere causes Condensation (clouds), gravity brings Precipitation (rain/snow), and terrain guides Collection back to the sea.
Without solar warmth, ocean water would stay liquid or freeze, and evaporation would stop, halting the entire global weather system.
Rain that falls on high mountains forms creeks and rivers, nourishing forests and providing drinking water before flowing to the sea.
Place a small amount of warm water in a clear zip-lock bag taped to a sunny window to observe real evaporation and condensation droplets inside.
Learning the water cycle helps you appreciate why conserving water and keeping rivers clean protects the entire planet.
Next labs in this group. Everything runs in your browser.
It is a free interactive earth science tool for beginners to discover evaporation, condensation, rain, and rivers through diagrams and quizzes.
The four main stages are Evaporation (liquid to vapor), Condensation (vapor to clouds), Precipitation (rain or snow), and Collection / Runoff (rivers back to the ocean).
When invisible warm water vapor rises high into the cool atmosphere, it cools down and condenses into billions of tiny floating liquid water droplets.
When condensed water droplets inside a cloud collide and grow too heavy to stay suspended by rising air, gravity pulls them down as precipitation.
No, almost all water on Earth today is the same water that has circulated through the atmosphere, oceans, and land for billions of years.
Practice mode offers three self-paced quizzes: ordering the 4 stages, identifying stage roles, and solving weather science questions.
Your quiz attempts and accuracy are saved locally in your browser with no login or account required.
Complex atmospheric pressure barometrics and advanced hydrogeology math are excluded for age-appropriate clarity.
Processed locally in your browser. Your files are never uploaded to our servers.