Water in Our World

This is a page of the basic facts about water that everyone should know about. It is made by 5 students from Sir Ernest MacMillian Senior Public School for their science project, but it's also a useful page for people who don't like to read, so please do not delete this page.

What is Water
Water (H2O) is a kind of substance that is essential for the survival of all kinds of life on the Earth. 71% of the world’s surface is covered by water. 97.2% of the water is salt water, 2.2% is solid fresh water, only 0.6% is liquid fresh water, and 0.001% is gaseous fresh water. Water has three states, solid, liquid, and gas. Water has many uses, and is very important to us.

Water Distribution
There are about 1.460 Pt of water in our world. They covered about 71% of the world’s surface. About 97.2% of the water is salt water (also known as saline water), which is found in the ocean. Only 0.6% is liquid fresh water (water that doesn’t contain much salt). Many people think fresh water is drinkable, but they are wrong. Most liquid fresh water contains chemicals and organisms that can make you sick. This means, the drinkable fresh water in our worlds is actually even less than 0.6%! Although, there are ways to clean water, and make them drinkable. But even though, you shouldn’t waste any water.

Salt Water
Ocean water has mostly salt water in them. Scientists have estimate that there is about 50 quadrillion tons (50 million billion tons) of dissolved solids in the Oceans. Salt water can be in lakes, swamps, estuaries, and marshes. Seawater is 220 times saltier than the fresh lake water. The water from the seas comes from the rivers that hold dissolved salts and other minerals. Over the next millions of years more salt will be carried into the sea making the seawater saltier. Saltwater is more dense than fresh water.

Fresh Water
Fresh water is defined as water with less than 0.5 parts per thousand dissolved salt. It include lakes, rivers, ponds, etc and is a vital part of our water system. Only 2.2% of water on Earth is covered by fresh water in nature. Humans need fresh water to survive, but access to unpolluted freshwater has become a critical issue for the survival of many species and again for humans as well. The best source of fresh water is the precipitation of the atmosphere, rain and snow.

The Three States of Water

Glossary

Gallery

Links
http://www.palomar.edu/oceanography/salty_ocean.htm

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