Glaciers
Water is evaporated from the oceans and the land and returned as rain or snow, forming the hydrologic cycle.
Ice caps and global water distribution |
Even though the amount of water locked up in glaciers and ice caps is a small percentage of all water on (and in) the Earth, it represents a large percentage of the world's total freshwater. As these charts and the data table show, the amount of water locked up in ice and snow is only about 1.7 percent of all water on Earth, but the majority of total freshwater on Earth, about 68.7 percent, is held in ice caps and glaciers. |
| Water source | Water volume, in cubic miles | Water volume, in cubic kilometers | Percent of total water | Percent of total freshwater | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ice caps, Glaciers, & Permanent snow | 5,773,000 | 24,064,000 | 1.7% | 68.7% | |
| Total global freshwater | 8,404,000 | 35,030,000 | 2.5% | -- | |
| Total global water | 332,500,000 | 1,386,000,000 | -- | -- | |
| Source: Gleick, P. H., 1996: Water resources. In Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather, ed. by S. H. Schneider, Oxford University Press, New York, vol. 2, pp.817-823. | |||||
| Water | Patterns of runoff |
Geophysics concepts
Reference
Lutgens & Tarbuck
Ch 9
| HyperPhysics | R Nave |