Global Distribution of Water Stores
Earth's water
- Water is defined as:
A colourless, tasteless, transparent, odourless liquid that forms the seas, rivers and precipitation
- Freshwater makes up just 2.5% of all Earth's water
- Approximately 1.6% of the freshwater is locked away:
- 68.6% as ice within the cryosphere
- The remaining 30.1% is groundwater
- In total, just 0.9% of the Earth's total freshwater, is accessible to humans
Comparison of the world's freshwater stores
Major stores of water
- Stores or reservoirs
- The term refers to a body of water that acts as a holding point – not just a man-made lake
- Water is stored within the major systems
- Most water is stored as saline water in oceans and freshwater as ice or within aquifers (groundwater stores)
- Frozen water in the cryosphere = 68.7%
- Liquid water in the hydrosphere = 1%
- Water vapour in the atmosphere = 0.2%
- Groundwater in the lithosphere = 30.1%
- Water is stored unevenly around the globe because of the uneven spread of land to sea and permeable or porous rock which enable aquifers to form