Water plays an exceptional role in supporting the life of any organism. This substance can be represented in three aggregate states: solid, liquid and gaseous. But it is liquid that is the main internal medium of the human body and other organisms, because all biochemical reactions occur here, and it is in it that all the cell structures are located.
What percentage is water on earth?
According to some estimates, about 71% of the entire Earth’s surface is water. It is represented by oceans, rivers, seas, lakes, swamps, icebergs. Groundwater as well as atmospheric air vapors are considered separately.
Of all this amount, only 3% is fresh water. Most of it is in icebergs, as well as in rivers and lakes on the continents. So how much percent of the water on Earth is in the seas and oceans? These basins are places of accumulation of saline H2O, which makes up 97% of the total volume.
If it became possible to collect all the water that is on the earth in one drop, then the sea water would occupy a volume of about 1,400 million km 3 , and fresh water would collect in a drop of 10 million km 3 . As you can see, there is 140 times less fresh water on earth than salty.
What percentage is fresh water on Earth?
About 3% of all liquid is fresh water. Most of it is concentrated in icebergs, upland snows and groundwater, and only a small amount falls on the rivers and lakes of the continents.
Actually, fresh water is divided into accessible and inaccessible. The first group consists of rivers, swamps and lakes, and also includes water from the surface layers of the earth's crust and atmospheric air vapor. All this man has learned to use for their own purposes.
How many percent of the world's fresh water is inaccessible? First of all, these are large reserves in the form of icebergs and mountain snow cover. They make up most of the fresh water. Also, the deep waters of the earth's crust form an essential part of all fresh H2O. People have not yet learned to use either source, but this is of great benefit, because a person cannot yet competently dispose of such an expensive resource as water.
The water cycle in nature
Fluid circulation plays a large role for living organisms, as water is a universal solvent. This makes it the main internal environment of animals and plants.
Water is concentrated not only in the human body and other creatures, but also in water basins: seas, oceans, rivers, lakes, swamps. The fluid cycle begins with precipitation such as rain or snow. Then the water accumulates, and then evaporates under the influence of the environment. This is clearly visible during the period of drought and heat. How much percent of the water on the earth is concentrated in the solid, liquid, and gaseous state depends on the circulation of the liquid in the atmosphere.
The cycle is of great environmental importance, because the fluid circulates in the atmosphere, hydrosphere and earth's crust, and thereby self-cleans. In some reservoirs where the pollution level is quite high, this process plays a huge role in maintaining the life of the ecosystem, but the restoration of the previous “purity” takes a long period of time.
Origin of water
The mystery of how the first water appeared cannot be solved for a long period of time. However, several hypotheses have appeared in the scientific community that suggest fluid formation options.
One of these conjectures dates back to the time when the Earth was still in its infancy. It is associated with the fall of "wet" meteorites that could bring water with them. It accumulated in the bowels of the Earth, which gave rise to the primary hydration shell. Nevertheless, scientists cannot answer the question of how many percent of the water on Earth was contained in that distant time.
Another theory is based on the terrestrial origin of water. The main impetus for the formation of this hypothesis was the finding of a relatively high concentration of heavy hydrogen deuterium in the seas and oceans. The chemical nature of deuterium is such that it could only form on Earth by increasing atomic mass. Therefore, scientists believe that the liquid formed on Earth and has no cosmic origin. However, researchers who support this hypothesis still can not answer the question of how many percent of water on Earth was 4.4 billion years ago.