Where is Earth's Water?

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Where is Earth's Water?

"Water, Water, Everywhere...."
You've heard the phrase, and for water, it really is true. Earth's water is (almost) everywhere: above the Earth in the air and clouds, on the surface of the Earth in rivers, oceans, ice, plants, in living organisms, and inside the Earth in the top few miles of the ground.

Media

Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details

Here is a series of 3 interconnected tree maps for all Earth’s water, all freshwater, and surface & other freshwater. All Earth’s water tree map is broken down in size order displaying oceans, other saline water, and freshwater. The second tree map displays all freshwater broken down in size order by glaciers & ice caps, groundwater, and surface & other freshwater. The third tree map breaks down surface & other freshwater in size order by ground ice & permafrost, lakes, soil moisture, atmosphere, swaps & marshes, rivers, and living things.

For a numerical estimated explanation of where Earth's water exists, look at this bar chart. You may know that the water cycle describes the movement of Earth's water, so realize that the chart and table below represent the presence of Earth's water at a single point in time. If you check back in a million years, no doubt these numbers will be different!

• Left bar: All water, freshwater and saline, on, in, and above the Earth.
• Center bar: All freshwater
• Right bar: Only the portion of freshwater residing in surface water (rivers and lakes, etc), snow and ice, and relatively-shallow ground water.

Here is a bar chart showing where all water on, in, and above the Earth exists. The left-side bar chart shows how almost all of Earth's water is saline and is found in the oceans. Of the small amount that is actually freshwater, only a relatively small portion is available to sustain human, plant, and animal life.

Media

Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details

• In the first bar, notice how only 2.5% of Earth's water is freshwater - the amount needed for life to survive.
• The middle bar shows the breakdown of freshwater. Almost all of it is locked up in ice and in the ground. Only a little more than 1.2% of all freshwater is surface water, which serves most of life's needs.

• The right bar shows the breakdown of surface freshwater. Most of this water is locked up in ice, and another 20.9% is found in lakes. Rivers make up 0.49% of surface freshwater. Although rivers account for only a small amount of freshwater, this is where humans get a large portion of their water.

   

One estimate of global water distribution
(Percents are rounded, so will not add to 100)

Source: Igor Shiklomanov's chapter "World fresh water resources" in Peter H. Gleick (editor), 1993, Water in Crisis: A Guide to the World's Fresh Water Resources (Oxford University Press, New York).