# What is the water cycle?

An episode of [Science for Kids / Science's Not Boring: The Kids Science Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1896928296), 20 Aug 2026, 12 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2624612/episodes/19641119-what-is-the-water-cycle.mp3

Grab your water bottles, because the water you are drinking right now has a wild, ancient secret! Did you know that the Earth's water is about 4.5 billion years old? That means the exact same water in your cup might have been sneezed out by a Woolly Mammoth, frozen in a massive glacier, or even swallowed by a giant Brachiosaurus during the Jurassic Period! Yep, you might literally be drinking purified dinosaur pee! Join hosts Mira and Finn on an epic journey as they follow a single, freezing drop of water on a globe-trotting adventure. You'll learn how long water stays in the pitch-black ocean, how it floats invisibly into the clouds, and how it gets trapped in rivers of ice. Plus, discover the jaw-dropping story of a brave scientist who found 2-billion-year-old water deep inside a Canadian mine—and actually tasted it! Get ready for mind-blowing facts, massive numbers, and a fun quiz to test your knowledge about the most extreme survivor on planet Earth: water!

## Transcript

[0:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Science Is Not Boring by kidopoly.com.
[0:03] SPEAKER_00: I'm Mira! And I'm Finn! Grab your water bottles, everyone, because today we are talking about the most extreme globe-trotting survivor on planet Earth.
[0:13] SPEAKER_00: The water in your cup right now has a wild, ancient secret.
[0:17] SPEAKER_01: Wait, what kind of secret?
[0:19] SPEAKER_01: It's just plain old tap water.
[0:21] SPEAKER_01: Nothing crazy about it.
[0:24] SPEAKER_00: Well, before it got to your kitchen, that exact same water might have been sneezed out by a woolly mammoth during the ice age.
[0:31] SPEAKER_00: Or it could have been trapped inside a giant freezing glacier.
[0:35] SPEAKER_00: Or it might have been peed out by a massive T-Rex.
[0:39] SPEAKER_01: Wait, stop.
[0:40] SPEAKER_01: Are you telling me I'm drinking dinosaur pea right now?
[0:43] SPEAKER_00: Yep.
[0:44] SPEAKER_00: Today we are exploring the wild, billions of years long journey of the water cycle.
[0:49] SPEAKER_00: We'll find out exactly how old the water you drink actually is, and follow a single drop as it travels from the pitch black bottom of the ocean to the highest clouds in the sky.
[1:00] SPEAKER_01: I mean, I am pretty thirsty, but now I'm also a little freaked out.
[1:04] SPEAKER_01: Let's do this.
[1:05] SPEAKER_00: To understand why you're drinking prehistoric pea, we have to start with the basics.
[1:11] SPEAKER_00: Earth is what scientists call a closed system.
[1:15] SPEAKER_00: That means no new water is being created and no water is leaving into space.
[1:21] SPEAKER_00: It's all trapped here, like a giant planetary terrarium.
[1:25] SPEAKER_01: Wait, so all the water we have right now in our sinks, oceans, and rivers is the exact same water that was here when the Earth was just a baby planet.
[1:34] SPEAKER_00: Exactly! Scientists estimate that Earth's water is about 4.5 billion years old.
[1:41] SPEAKER_00: Studies actually show some of our water might even be older than the Sun itself, formed in deep space and arriving here on ancient, icy comets.
[1:52] SPEAKER_01: Okay, that is mind-blowing.
[1:54] SPEAKER_01: But how much water is there?
[1:56] SPEAKER_01: Like, how many gallons are we talking about?
[1:58] SPEAKER_00: Are you ready for a massive number?
[2:01] SPEAKER_00: There are about 326 million trillion gallons of water on Earth.
[2:11] SPEAKER_01: How many zeros is that?
[2:13] SPEAKER_00: That is a 326, followed by 18 zeros.
[2:18] SPEAKER_00: If you put all that water into a giant ball in space, it would be over 860 miles wide.
[2:26] SPEAKER_00: That's enough water to fill around 500 trillion Olympic swimming pools.
[2:31] SPEAKER_01: Whoa! So where is all this water hiding?
[2:34] SPEAKER_00: Well, 97% of it is super salty ocean water.
[2:39] SPEAKER_00: We can't drink that.
[2:40] SPEAKER_00: About 2% is frozen solid in giant glaciers and ice caps.
[2:45] SPEAKER_01: So 97 plus 2 is 99.
[2:49] SPEAKER_01: That only leaves 1% for us to drink.
[2:52] SPEAKER_00: You got it! Less than 1% of all that water is fresh, liquid water in rivers, lakes, and underground aquifers, and all of it is constantly moving in something called the water cycle.
[3:05] SPEAKER_00: Let's follow the journey of just one single drop of water.
[3:10] SPEAKER_00: Imagine a tiny freezing cold drop sitting in the pitch blackness at the very bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
[3:18] SPEAKER_01: It's pretty dark and super cold down there, right?
[3:22] SPEAKER_01: Like freezing cold with weird glowing fish.
[3:25] SPEAKER_01: How long does our little drop stay stuck in the deep ocean?
[3:29] SPEAKER_00: A very long time.
[3:31] SPEAKER_00: Because the ocean is so huge and deep, a single drop of water spends an average of about 3,200 years just hanging out in the ocean, slowly riding the deep, freezing currents.
[3:45] SPEAKER_01: 3,200 years?
[3:47] SPEAKER_01: That drop is older than ancient Rome, before it even sees the sun.
[3:52] SPEAKER_01: What happens next?
[3:54] SPEAKER_00: Eventually, an ocean current pushes our drop up to the surface.
[3:58] SPEAKER_00: The bright sun heats it up.
[4:00] SPEAKER_00: When water gets warm, it turns from a liquid into an invisible gas called water vapor.
[4:06] SPEAKER_00: This is called evaporation.
[4:08] SPEAKER_01: So our drop literally turns invisible and floats up into the sky.
[4:13] SPEAKER_01: That's basically a superpower.
[4:15] SPEAKER_00: It is! Once it rises high into the atmosphere, the air gets colder.
[4:21] SPEAKER_00: The invisible vapour cools down and turns back into tiny liquid droplets, clumping together to form clouds.
[4:29] SPEAKER_00: This is condensation.
[4:31] SPEAKER_01: So how long does it stay floating around as a cloud?
[4:34] SPEAKER_01: Another 3,000 years?
[4:36] SPEAKER_00: Not even close.
[4:38] SPEAKER_00: Water only stays in the atmosphere for about eight to nine days.
[4:42] SPEAKER_00: It gets blown hundreds of miles by powerful winds, travelling across oceans and continents in just a little over a week.
[4:51] SPEAKER_01: Haha, that's a super fast vacation compared to the ocean.
[4:54] SPEAKER_01: And then it rains, right?
[4:56] SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
[4:57] SPEAKER_00: Precipitation.
[4:59] SPEAKER_00: But our drop doesn't fall as rain.
[5:01] SPEAKER_00: It gets swept over the freezing peak of a huge mountain, and falls as a perfect, delicate snowflake.
[5:08] SPEAKER_01: Oh no!
[5:09] SPEAKER_00: Huge mountains have crazy blizzards! Does our drop get stuck there?
[5:13] SPEAKER_00: It sure does.
[5:15] SPEAKER_00: It falls as snow, gets buried, and is packed into a massive, slow-moving river of ice called a glacier.
[5:22] SPEAKER_00: And water can stay frozen solid in a glacier for anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 years.
[5:30] SPEAKER_01: Poor little drop.
[5:31] SPEAKER_01: That is a very long time to be an ice cube.
[5:34] SPEAKER_01: 10,000 years! What finally frees it?
[5:38] SPEAKER_00: Eventually, the glacier slowly creeps down the side of the mountain to a warmer valley.
[5:43] SPEAKER_00: The ice melts into liquid water, and our drop rushes into a fast-flowing muddy river.
[5:49] SPEAKER_00: And this is where the giant dinosaurs come in.
[5:52] SPEAKER_00: Ah, I knew it! Tell me what happens.
[5:55] SPEAKER_00: Let's rewind the clock 150 million years to the Jurassic period.
[6:01] SPEAKER_00: Our tiny drop is flowing down a prehistoric river, surrounded by giant ferns.
[6:06] SPEAKER_00: Suddenly, a massive long-necked Brachiosaurus bends down to take a drink.
[6:12] SPEAKER_00: And it swallows our drop! Yep.
[6:15] SPEAKER_00: A fully grown brachiosaurus weighed up to 80,000 pounds, and probably drank dozens of gallons of water every single day.
[6:24] SPEAKER_00: Our drop travels through the dinosaur's stomach, into its bloodstream, and eventually It peas it out, gross.
[6:32] SPEAKER_00: It's just nature, Finn.
[6:34] SPEAKER_00: The dinosaur peas, the water soaks into the soil, evaporates back into the sky, and the 4.5 billion year old cycle continues.
[6:43] SPEAKER_01: Wait, so because the water is billions of years old, and dinosaurs lived for almost 200 million years, they had a lot of time to drink all the water.
[6:53] SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
[6:54] SPEAKER_00: The probability is basically 100%.
[6:57] SPEAKER_00: Almost every single molecule of water you have ever drunk has passed through the body of a dinosaur.
[7:04] SPEAKER_00: The water is totally clean now, of course, because evaporation purifies it.
[7:09] SPEAKER_01: Okay, that makes me feel a little better.
[7:11] SPEAKER_01: Evaporation is like nature's giant water filter.
[7:15] SPEAKER_01: But wait, if water is constantly moving, is there any water that just got stuck and never evaporated?
[7:22] SPEAKER_00: That is a brilliant question, and the answer is yes.
[7:26] SPEAKER_00: In 2016, an amazing geologist named Dr.
[7:30] SPEAKER_00: Barbara Sherwood Lolller was exploring the Kid Creek Mine in Ontario, Canada.
[7:37] SPEAKER_01: A mine, like wearing a hard hat with a flashlight on it, looking for copper deep underground.
[7:42] SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
[7:44] SPEAKER_00: She was nearly two miles beneath the surface of the Earth.
[7:47] SPEAKER_00: It's incredibly hot down there.
[7:50] SPEAKER_00: But as she explored, she noticed water bubbling out of tiny cracks in the solid rock.
[7:56] SPEAKER_01: Nearly two miles underground.
[7:59] SPEAKER_01: That's deeper than some mountains at all.
[8:01] SPEAKER_01: How long had that water been trapped inside the rock?
[8:04] SPEAKER_01: Dr.
[8:05] SPEAKER_00: Sherwood Loller and her team carefully collected the water, brought it to a lab, and tested the chemicals inside it.
[8:13] SPEAKER_00: When they got the results, their jaws dropped.
[8:16] SPEAKER_00: That water had been completely cut off from the surface for two billion years.
[8:23] SPEAKER_01: Two billion years?
[8:24] SPEAKER_01: That's almost half the entire age of the Earth.
[8:28] SPEAKER_01: What did it look like?
[8:29] SPEAKER_01: Did she touch it?
[8:31] SPEAKER_00: She actually tasted it.
[8:33] SPEAKER_00: Scientists sometimes taste water samples to see how salty they are.
[8:38] SPEAKER_00: But this water was terrible.
[8:40] SPEAKER_00: She said it was incredibly salty, way saltier than the ocean, super bitter, and it felt thicker than normal water.
[8:49] SPEAKER_00: Ew!
[8:50] SPEAKER_01: Bitter, thick, two billion-year-old cave water.
[8:53] SPEAKER_01: No thank you.
[8:55] SPEAKER_00: It might taste awful, but it's an amazing discovery.
[8:58] SPEAKER_00: Finding water that old tells scientists what the Earth's atmosphere was like two billion years ago.
[9:06] SPEAKER_00: It even gives us clues about where we might find water, and maybe alien life, hiding deep underground on planets like Mars.
[9:15] SPEAKER_00: Alright Finn, quiz time! Let's see how much you remember about the incredible water cycle.
[9:21] SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm ready.
[9:23] SPEAKER_01: Hit me with the numbers.
[9:25] SPEAKER_00: First question.
[9:27] SPEAKER_00: Roughly how old is the water on Earth?
[9:32] SPEAKER_00: Next one.
[9:34] SPEAKER_00: When a drop of water goes into the ocean, about how many years does it stay there?
[9:42] SPEAKER_00: Question 3.
[9:44] SPEAKER_00: Once water evaporates into a cloud, how many days does it stay in the atmosphere before falling back down?
[9:54] SPEAKER_00: Here's number four.
[9:55] SPEAKER_00: What country is the Kid Creek mine in where Dr.
[9:58] SPEAKER_00: Barbara Sherwood Loller found ancient trapped water?
[10:05] SPEAKER_00: Last question.
[10:07] SPEAKER_00: Exactly how old was that super salty, terrible tasting underground water?
[10:16] SPEAKER_00: Great job! Let's see how you did.
[10:19] SPEAKER_00: The first answer is Earth's water is about 4.5 billion years old.
[10:25] SPEAKER_00: For question 2, a drop stays in the ocean for about 3,200 years.
[10:32] SPEAKER_00: The answer to number 3 is water only stays in the atmosphere for 8 to 9 days.
[10:38] SPEAKER_00: For question 4, the Kid Creek mine is located in Canada.
[10:43] SPEAKER_00: And the final answer is that ancient trapped water was 2 billion years old.
[10:50] SPEAKER_00: I got all of them.
[10:52] SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't think I will ever look at my water bottle the same way again.
[10:57] SPEAKER_01: Every sip is a piece of ancient history.
[11:00] SPEAKER_00: It really is.
[11:02] SPEAKER_01: Science is all around us, even in a plain glass of water.
[11:06] SPEAKER_01: Hey listeners, if you thought the dinosaur pea fact was funny, please leave us a five-star review.
[11:12] SPEAKER_01: Just scroll down and tap the stars right now.
[11:15] SPEAKER_01: Yes, please.
[11:16] SPEAKER_00: Oh, and don't forget to check out our site, kidopoly.com.
[11:20] SPEAKER_00: We've got tons of fun learning games and activities there.
[11:23] SPEAKER_01: And if you want a shout out on the show or just want to say hi, email us at hello at kidopoly.com.
[11:30] SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, everyone.
[11:32] SPEAKER_00: See you next time on Science is Not Boring.
[11:35] SPEAKER_00: Bye!

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.