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Greek Water Planet Minor Planet Natural Satellite Seafloor Spreading Continental Drift

The hydrosphere refers to all water on, below, and above the surface of a planet or satellite. It includes water in liquid, solid, and vapor forms. Earth's hydrosphere contains approximately 1,386 million cubic kilometers of water, with 97.5% being saltwater in oceans and only 2.5% being freshwater. Most freshwater is locked up in ice sheets, glaciers, and groundwater, with a small 0.3% available in lakes and rivers. The total mass of Earth's hydrosphere is 1.4 x 1018 tonnes, with 20 x 1012 tonnes as water vapor in the atmosphere at any given time. Oceans cover approximately 71% of Earth's

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30 views1 page

Greek Water Planet Minor Planet Natural Satellite Seafloor Spreading Continental Drift

The hydrosphere refers to all water on, below, and above the surface of a planet or satellite. It includes water in liquid, solid, and vapor forms. Earth's hydrosphere contains approximately 1,386 million cubic kilometers of water, with 97.5% being saltwater in oceans and only 2.5% being freshwater. Most freshwater is locked up in ice sheets, glaciers, and groundwater, with a small 0.3% available in lakes and rivers. The total mass of Earth's hydrosphere is 1.4 x 1018 tonnes, with 20 x 1012 tonnes as water vapor in the atmosphere at any given time. Oceans cover approximately 71% of Earth's

Uploaded by

Victoria Ceban
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The hydrosphere (from Greek ὕδωρ hydōr, "water"[1] and σφαῖρα sphaira, "sphere"[2]) is the

combined mass of water found on, under, and above the surface of a planet, minor
planet or natural satellite. Although Earth's hydrosphere has been around for about 4 billion
years,[3][4] it continues to change in shape. This is caused by seafloor spreading and continental
drift, which rearranges the land and ocean.[5]
It has been estimated that there are 1,386 million cubic kilometres (333,000,000 cubic miles) of
water on Earth.[6]This includes water in liquid and frozen forms
in groundwater, oceans, lakes and streams. Saltwater accounts for 97.5% of this amount,
whereas fresh water accounts for only 2.5%. Of this fresh water, 68.9% is in the form of iceand
permanent snow cover in the Arctic, the Antarctic and mountain glaciers; 30.8% is in the form of
fresh groundwater; and only 0.3% of the fresh water on Earth is in easily accessible lakes,
reservoirs and river systems.[6]
The total mass of Earth's hydrosphere is about 1.4 × 1018 tonnes, which is about 0.023% of
Earth's total mass. At any given time, about 20 × 1012 tonnes of this is in the form of water
vapor in the Earth's atmosphere (for practical purposes, 1 cubic meter of water weighs one
tonne). Approximately 71% of Earth's surface, an area of some 361 million square kilometers
(139.5 million square miles), is covered by ocean. The average salinity of Earth's oceans is about
35 grams of salt per kilogram of sea water (3.5%)

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