Groundwater Flow is the process where water in the ground comes back to the land surface. The term groundwater describes water that is stored underground in the rocks or geologic formations. When water infiltrates into the ground, it moves to the groundwater and is stored. Usually this groundwater flows into the bottom of a creek or river or the ocean. Evapo-transipration is the process where liquid water either on the land surface, in the soil, or in the ocean goes back into the air as water vapor.
Evaporation occurs when liquid water is heated and becomes water vapor, like boiling a pot of water.
Water also evaporates when the air does not contain much water vapor. Transpiration describes how plants take liquid water from the soil and turn it into water vapor, which is released through leaves. The water is used to move nutrients from the soil into the leaves. In the leaves, sunlight and water and nutrients all play a part in photosynthesis, where plants store energy in sugars and starches. Evaporation and transpiration are grouped together, because it is hard to tell the difference between them.