Water Distribution on Earth

PrintPrint

Water Distribution on Earth

Where is water distributed on Earth?

Earth is often called the “Blue Planet”, because of its abundance of liquid water. As we’ve already covered in Module #1, this water is distributed in the oceans, ice caps and glaciers, surface water (streams, lakes, and rivers), groundwater, soil moisture, the atmosphere, and in biomass. However, these reservoirs of Earth’s water are not static; water is constantly fluxing between them. We see this transport of water every day, for example in the form of flowing rivers, rain and snow, and groundwater springs.

Bar graphs shows distribution of water between Earth's major reservoirs.
Figure 5. Distribution of water between Earth’s major reservoirs
Click Here for Text Alternative of Distribtion of water between Earth's major reservoirs
Total Global water
Type Percentage
Oceans 96.5
Other saline water 0.9
Freshwater 2.5
Freshwater
Type Percentage
Glaciers and ice caps 68.7
Groundwater 30.1
Surface/other freshwater 1.2
Surface water and other freshwater
Type Percentage
Ground ice and permafrost 69
Lakes 20.9
Soil moisture 3.8
Atmosphere 3
Swamps, marshes 2.6
Rivers 0.49
Living things 0.26
Source: NASA Image, 1993; based on data from a chapter in Gleick, ed., 1993, "Water in Crisis"