Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Most water in Earth's atmosphere and crust comes from saline seawater, while fresh water accounts for nearly 1% of the total. The vast bulk of the water on Earth is saline or salt water, with an average salinity of 35‰ (or 3.5%, roughly equivalent to 34 grams of salts in 1 kg of seawater), though this varies slightly according to the amount of runoff received from surrounding land.
Fresh water makes up less than 3% of the world's water resources, and just 1% of that is readily available. Just 3% of it is extracted for human consumption. Agriculture uses roughly two thirds of all fresh water extracted from the environment. [1] [2] [3] Fresh water is a renewable and variable, but finite natural resource.
Out of all the water on Earth, saline water in oceans, seas and saline groundwater make up about 97% of it. Only 2.5–2.75% is fresh water, including 1.75–2% frozen in glaciers, ice and snow, 0.5–0.75% as fresh groundwater and soil moisture, and less than 0.01% of it as surface water in lakes, swamps and rivers.
Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. These resources can be either freshwater from natural sources, or water produced artificially from other sources, such as from reclaimed water or desalinated water (). 97% of the water on Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh ...
A mere 0.014% of all water on Earth is both fresh and easily accessible. [38] Of the remaining water, 97% is saline, and a little less than 3% is difficult to access. The fresh water available to us on the planet is around 1% of the total water on earth. [39] The total amount of easily accessible freshwater on Earth is 14,000 cubic kilometers.
Freshwater ecosystems are a subset of Earth's aquatic ecosystems. They include lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, springs, bogs, and wetlands. [1] They can be contrasted with marine ecosystems, which have a larger salt content. Freshwater habitats can be classified by different factors, including temperature, light penetration, nutrients, and ...
The origin of water on Earth is the subject of a body of research in the fields of planetary science, astronomy, and astrobiology. Earth is unique among the rocky planets in the Solar System in having oceans of liquid water on its surface. [2] Liquid water, which is necessary for all known forms of life, continues to exist on the surface of ...
Hydrosphere. The hydrosphere (from Ancient Greek ὕδωρ (húdōr) 'water' and σφαῖρα (sphaîra) 'sphere') [1][2] is the combined mass of water found on, under, and above the surface of a planet, minor planet, or natural satellite. Although Earth 's hydrosphere has been around for about 4 billion years, [3][4] it continues to change in ...