DISTRUBUTION OF WATER ON

EARTH

The distribution of water on the

Earths surface is extremely
uneven. Only 3% of water on the
surface is fresh; the remaining 97%
resides in the ocean. Of freshwater,
69% resides in glaciers, 30%
underground, and less than 1% is
located in lakes, rivers and swamps.
Looked at another way, only one
percent of the water on the Earths
surface is usable by humans, and

Groundwater(ground water) is thewaterpresent

beneath Earth's surface in soil pore spaces and in
the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an
unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it
can yield a usable quantity ofwater.

Surface wateriswateron the surface of the planet

such as in astream,river,lake,wetland, orocean. It
can be contrasted withgroundwaterand
atmospheric water.
Non-saline surface water is replenished by
precipitationand by recruitment from ground-water. It
is lost throughevaporation,seepageinto the ground
where it becomes ground-water, used by plants for
transpiration, extracted by mankind for agriculture,
living, industry etc. or discharged to the sea where it
becomessaline.

Aswampis awetlandthat is forested.Many

swamps occur along large rivers where they are
critically dependent upon natural water level
fluctuations.Other swamps occur on the shores of
large lakes.Some swamps havehammocks, or dryland protrusions, covered byaquatic vegetation, or
vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation.The
two main types of swamp are "true" or
swamp forestsand "transitional" orshrub swamps.
In the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is
colloquially used for what is more correctly termed
abogormuskeg. The water of a swamp may be
fresh water,brackish waterorseawater

HAVE A NICE DAY