Water-Cycle Diagrams and Summaries
Our water-cycle diagram (about 150 kilobytes) is available in many languages. Text summaries are also available for some languages (with more on the way!).
English
Afrikaans
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic:
Diagram |
Summary
Bahasa
Bengali
Bulgarian
Burmese
Chinese:
Diagram | Summary
Water-Science Center
Croatian
Czech:
Diagram | Summary
Danish:
Diagram | Summary
Dutch
Estonian:
Diagram | Summary
Farsi:
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Finnish
French:
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Georgian
German
Greek:
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Summary
Hebrew
Hiligaynon
Hindi
Hungarian
Icelandic
Italian:
Diagram | Summary
Japanese:
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Kannada
Khmer
Korean
Kyrgyz
Lao
Latvian
Lithuanian:
Diagram | Summary
Macedonian:
Diagram | Summary
Malay:
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Malayalam
Mongolian
Nepali
Northern Sotho
Norwegian:
Diagram | Summary
Polish:
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Portuguese:
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Punjabi
Pushto
Romanian:
Diagram | Summary
Russian:
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Serbian:
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Sindhi:
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Slovakian
Slovene
Spanish:
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Swahili
Swedish:
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Tajik:
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Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Tsonga
Turkish:
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Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese:
Diagram | Summary
Wolof
Zulu
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Earth's water is always in movement, and the water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, describes the continuous movement of water on, above, and below the surface of the Earth. Since the water cycle is truly a "cycle," there is no beginning or end. Water can change states among liquid, vapor, and ice at various places in the water cycle, with these processes happening in the blink of an eye and over millions of years.
Although the balance of water on Earth remains fairly constant over time, individual water molecules can come and go in a hurry. The water in the apple you ate yesterday may have fallen as rain half-way around the world last year or could have been used 100 million years ago by Mama Dinosaur to give her baby a bath.
To explore the water cycle, choose a topic from the diagram or text links below.
Where do YOU think the water cycle begins? Give us your opinion.
A summary of the water cycle on a single Web page is also available:
Complete summary •  Text only •  Quick summary
![The water cycle: Diagram showing all 16 parts of the water cycle. Diagram of the water cycle.](graphics/wcmaindiagram2.jpg)
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