how many percent fresh water in earth

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How much water is there on, in, and above the Earth?

All Earth’s water, liquid fresh water, and water in lakes and rivers

Spheres showing:

(1) All water (largest sphere over western U.S., 860 miles (1,385 kilometers) in diameter)
(2) Fresh liquid water in the ground, lakes, swamps, and rivers (mid-sized sphere over Kentucky, 169.5 miles (272.8 kilometers) in diameter), and
(3) Fresh-water lakes and rivers (smallest sphere over Georgia, 34.9 miles i(56.2 kilometers) n diameter).

Credit: Howard Perlman, USGS; globe illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (©); and Adam Nieman.

The Earth

The Earth is a watery place. But just how much water exists on, in, and above our planet? About 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is water-covered, and the oceans hold about 96.5 percent of all Earth’s water. Water also exists in the air as water vapor, in rivers and lakes, in icecaps and glaciers, in the ground as soil moisture and in aquifers, and even in you and your dog.

Water is never sitting still. Thanks to the water cycle, our planet’s water supply is constantly moving from one place to another and from one form to another. Things would get pretty stale without the water cycle!

All Earth’s water in a bubble

The globe illustration shows blue spheres representing relative amounts of Earth’s water in comparison to the size of the Earth. Are you surprised that these water spheres look so small? They are only small in relation to the size of the Earth. This image attempts to show three dimensions, so each sphere represents “volume.” The volume of the largest sphere, representing all water on, in, and above the Earth, would be about 332,500,000 cubic miles (mi³) (1,386,000,000 cubic kilometers (km³)), and be about 860 miles (about 1,385 kilometers) in diameter.

how many percent fresh water in earth

The smaller sphere

The smaller sphere over Kentucky represents Earth’s liquid fresh water in groundwater, swamp water, rivers, and lakes. The volume of this sphere would be about 2,551,000 mi³(10,633,450 km³) and form a sphere about 169.5 miles (272.8 kilometers) in diameter. Yes, all of this water is fresh water, which we all need every day, but much of it is deep in the ground, unavailable to humans.

Do you notice the “tiny” bubble over Atlanta, Georgia? That one represents fresh water in all the lakes and rivers on the planet. Most of the water people and life on earth need every day comes from these surface-water sources. The volume of this sphere is about 22,339 mi³ (93,113 km³). The diameter of this sphere is about 34.9 miles (56.2 kilometers). Yes, Lake Michigan looks way bigger than this sphere, but you have to try to imagine a bubble almost 35 miles high—whereas the average depth of Lake Michigan is less than 300 feet (91 meters).

Earth’s Water

Water—the main reason for life on Earth—continuously circulates through one of Earth’s most powerful systems: the water cycle. Water flows endlessly between the ocean, atmosphere, and land. Earth’s water is finite, meaning that the amount of water in, on, and above our planet does not increase or decrease.

how many percent fresh water in earth

a.Water cycle:

The water cycle describes how water evaporates from the Earth’s surface, rises into the atmosphere, cools, condenses to form clouds, and falls again to the surface as precipitation. About 75% of the energy (or heat) in the global atmosphere is transferred through the evaporation of water from the Earth’s surface. On land, water evaporates from the ground, mainly from soils, plants (i.e., transpiration), lakes, and streams.

In fact, approximately 15% of the water entering the atmosphere is from evaporation from Earth’s land surfaces and evapotranspiration from plants. Such evaporation cools the Earth’s surface, cools the lower atmosphere, and provides water to the atmosphere to form clouds.

b. Earth’s fresh water :

Of all the water that exists on our planet, roughly 97% is saltwater and less than 3% is freshwater. Most of Earth’s freshwater is frozen in glaciers, ice caps, or is deep underground in aquifers. Less than 1% of Earth’s water is freshwater that is easily accessible to us to meet our needs, and most of that water is replenished by precipitation—a vital component of the water cycle, affecting every living thing on Earth.

c. Precipitation:

Precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls quickly from a cloud. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, graupel (soft hail or snow pellets), and hail.

While precipitation is the ultimate source of the freshwater we use in our daily lives, this essential natural resource is not distributed evenly across our planet. On land, some places are drenched with rain, such as temperate and tropical rainforests.

Other locations receive little rain and snow and are so dry that communities, such as Las Vegas, Nevada, recycle water that has been used for bathing and cleaning—known as grey water— to water their gardens.

d. Global view:

Understanding the role of precipitation in Earth’s water cycle and how it interacts with other Earth systems requires a global view.

The distribution of water throughout the atmosphere and how it moves, changing between its solid, liquid, and gaseous forms, is a powerful vehicle for redistributing Earth’s energy and influences the behavior of the planet’s weather, climate, and other environmental systems.

Earth’s Freshwater

Most people have heard Earth referred to as “the water planet.” With that name comes the rightful image of a world with plentiful water.

In photographs taken from space, we can see that our planet has more water than land. However, of all the water on Earth, more than 99 percent of Earth’s water is unusable by humans and many other living things – only about 0.3 percent of our fresh water is found in the surface water of lakes, rivers and swamps.

The teacher guide describes our current understanding of water cycling and freshwater issues that affect natural and human communities.

All Earth’s water in a bubble

Water is on and in the Earth

The vast majority of water on the Earth’s surface, over 96 percent, is saline water in the oceans.

The freshwater resources, such as water falling from the skies and moving into streams, rivers, lakes, and groundwater, provide people with the water they need every day to live.

Water sitting on the surface of the Earth is easy to visualize, and your view of the water cycle might be that rainfall fills up the rivers and lakes. But, the unseen water below our feet is critically important to life, also.

How do you account for the flow in rivers after weeks without rain?

In fact, how do you account for the water flowing down a driveway on a day when it didn’t rain? The answer is that there is more to our water supply than just surface water, there is also plenty of water beneath our feet.

the earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor and support life. About 29.2% of Earth’s surface is land consisting of continents and islands. The remaining 70.8% is covered with water, mostly by oceans, seas, gulfs, and other salt-water bodies, but also by lakes, rivers, and other freshwater, which together constitute the hydrosphere.

resource: wikipedia

how many percent fresh water in earth