Earth's Water
Chapter 2, Section 3
The water cycle
As you recall, many places on earth like oceans, lakes , rivers , and other bodies of water make up a part of the earth called the hydrosphere. The water cycle is the name given to this regular movement of water.
Bodies of Salt water
70 percent of the earth's surface is water, but the most percentage it is salt water. Geographers divide the four enormous oceans that circle the Earth. The Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian , and the Arctic. The pacific is one of the largest, it covers more area than all the earth's land combined.
Oceans
97 percent of the worlds water is found in oceans, but most of it its too salty to drink and to use for other goods. People today are putting great effort into desalination, this process is still in the early stages of development, and because desalination is expensive, only a small amount of freshwater is gained this way.
Bodies Of Freshwater
Only about 3 percent of the earths total water supply is freshwater, and most is not available for human consumption.More than 2 percent of Earths total water supply is frozen in glaciers and ice caps. Another 0.5 percent is found beneath the earths surface.
Groundwater
It's freshwater which lies beneath the earths surface, comes from rain and melted snow that filter through the soil and from water that seeps into the ground from lakes and rivers. An underground porous rock layer often saturated with water in the form of streams is called an 'aquifer'. Aquifers and groundwater are important sources of freshwater.