<P> Water is the transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance that is the main constituent of Earth's streams, lakes, and oceans, and the fluids of most living organisms, and that is vital for all known forms of life, even though it provides no calories or organic nutrients . Its chemical formula is H O, meaning that each of its molecules contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds . Water is the name of the liquid state of H O at standard ambient temperature and pressure . It forms precipitation in the form of rain and aerosols in the form of fog . Clouds are formed from suspended droplets of water and ice, its solid state . When finely divided, crystalline ice may precipitate in the form of snow . The gaseous state of water is steam or water vapor . Water moves continually through the water cycle of evaporation, transpiration (evapotranspiration), condensation, precipitation, and runoff, usually reaching the sea . </P> <P> Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface, mostly in seas and oceans . Small portions of water occur as groundwater (1.7%), in the glaciers and the ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland (1.7%), and in the air as vapor, clouds (formed of ice and liquid water suspended in air), and precipitation (0.001%). </P>

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