How Much Water Is Frozen On Earth

What Pct Of Earth'southward Water Is Frozen?

The Perito The Moreno Glacier in Argentina's Los Glaciares National Park. — The Perito The Moreno Glacier in Argentina'south Los Glaciares National Park.

From space, the earth looks like a majestic blueish bubble, the blueish colour of the earth is because of reflection of the calorie-free from the planet'southward massive oceans. Nearly 71% of the planet is covered past water while the rest is country. Water is considered a finite source; it circulates across the oceans, land surface and underground. The bottled water we beverage was once flowing in the rivers and existed in the atmosphere every bit water vapor before cooling a trickling down as rain. The globe's h2o has existed for billions of years. Researchers are yet to decide where exactly the water came from just information technology is theorized that it might accept been carried into the world past meteors and meteorites during the early years of the planet. No water leaves or enters the earth's temper. The hydrologic cycle cleans and replenishes the planet's water.

Distribution of Earth's Water

Despite the abundance of water on the planet, humanity is threatened by lack of clean drinking water. This is because only 0.three% of the planet's h2o is attainable and usable by living things. Most 99.seven% of the water lies in the oceans, soil, icecaps, and as vapor in the temper. Approximately 96.five% of the planet's water lies in the ocean, 0.ix% lies in other saline water bodies such as salty lakes while 2.v% is fresh h2o. Of the freshwater, 68.7% is contained in glaciers and ice caps, 30.1% is hush-hush water, and 1.2% is fresh surface water. Of the surface water, 69% is groundwater and permafrost, 20.ix% lies in lakes, 3.viii% lies in the soil, 2.6% in swamps and marshes 0.49% in rivers, 0.26% is independent in living things, and 3.0% exists every bit water vapor.

How Much of World'due south H2o Is Frozen?

Much of earth'south ice is held in ii ice sheets, one in Antarctica and one in Greenland. The Antarctica water ice sheet contains about xc% of the full global water ice mass, while the Greenland water ice sheet contains about 10%. The Greenland ice sheet ranges from 5,000 to xiv,000 feet in thickness in some places. Smaller glaciers are also found on every continent on earth, in almost 50 countries, with notable glaciers in Iceland, Canada, Chile, Argentine republic, and the US state of Alaska.

Source of Earth's Water

The origin of water on the planet is a mystery but is well known that the earth has more h2o than any other rocky planet in our solar system. Researchers theorize h2o reached the planet from water-rich icy comets, meteoroids and trans-Neptunian objects. It was first thought that the water arrived later on the earth formed but recent research by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution accept shown that h2o was part of the world's formation process. Earth's sister, planet Mars, has exhibited signs that rivers and lakes once traversed it. The planet's thin atmosphere is thought to have been unable to concord on to the h2o. Further study of the planet has revealed that the planet has frozen water below the surface of its polar region. In 2008-2009 researchers analyzed parts of the moon's surface, and the samples collected from the Apollo missions and revealed that the moon's surface is wetter than previously thought.