Surface Water and Groundwater

Earth's Water Review

​

Earth's Water

97.5% salt water (oceans, saline lakes and rivers, saline groundwater)

2.5% fresh water (groundwater, surface water, polar ice caps and glaciers)

How much of this water can humans use?

• Saltwater (97.5% of Earth's water) is not healthy for humans to drink or water crops.

• Only 2.5% of Earth's water is usable, and much of it is difficult to access.

Fresh Water on Earth

• Frozen water (Polar Ice Caps and Glaciers) makes up 69% of all fresh water.

• Groundwater (water under Earth's surface) makes up 30% of all fresh water.

• Surface water (rivers, lakes, ponds, etc) makes up 1% of all fresh water.

Accessible Fresh Water

Frozen water is hard to access (it's ice/snow and is often far away from human access).

Groundwater is hard to access because we have to dig down deep to access it.

Surface water is easy to access because it's right at the surface and NOT frozen!

Importance of Conserving Water

• Only 0.01% of Earth's water (fresh surface water) is easy to access.

• Desalination (process of taking salt out of water) is possible, but time-consuming and difficult.

• The water we have on Earth is the same amount as when it began, but we have billions more people using it.