Fluther: If I told you that the earth consited of less than ...

If I told you that the earth consited of less than one fiftieth of half a percent of water would you believe me?

Asked by RareDenver (13173

) September 11th, 2009
25 responses
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If you disagree post your estimates.

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Topics: geography, geology

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I think it is two-third. But then again, my name is Alan Davies. ;-)

rebbel (35549

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By surface area, no. By volume, maybe.

hiphiphopflipflapflop (6100

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Interesting. Are you excluding or including water vapor in the earth’s atmosphere as being part of earth? See ya….Gary/wtf

whatthefluther (13830

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@whatthefluther including

RareDenver (13173

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Well, considering what scientists call the “surface” of the earth is this teensy tiny (highly scientific term there) crust on a behemoth ball of “stuff” (‘nother good scientific term), then I would say you’re probably pretty close to being right. Although, the phrase “one fiftieth of half a percent” is a little odd.

Les (10005

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean
1.3 billion cubic kilometers of water (1.3×10^9 km^3)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth
1.0832073×10^12 km^3

So…

1.3×10^9
——————————— approx. = 0.0013/1.08 approx. = 0.0013
1.08×10^12 – 1.3×10^9

approx. = a tenth of one percent.

(1/50)(0.005) = 0.0001

Wait, order of magnitude off. Mass rather than volume?

hiphiphopflipflapflop (6100

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean
“The total mass of the hydrosphere is about 1,400,000,000,000,000,000 metric tons (1.5 × 10^18 short tons), which is about 0.023% of the Earth’s total mass.”

hiphiphopflipflapflop (6100

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I don’t recall ever seeing data presented as such. I think we have all heard that 70% of the earth’s surface is covered with water and that 96% of surface water is saline but not such a mass comparison. I went to the USGS site and they do not present this amount, at least that I could find. Very interesting….thank you. See ya….Gary/wtf
And thank you @hiphiphopflipflapflop for the calcs.

whatthefluther (13830

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Wikipedia’s article on the earth’s atmosphere doesn’t give an estimate of it’s mass, but given air is much less dense than water and that the air is only about 1% water vapor, the mass of airborne water is probably insignificant with respect to the mass of all liquid water.

hiphiphopflipflapflop (6100

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It might be interesting to look at volume figures but I suppose we would need to account for water phase (ice, liquid, vapor) by converting all to liquid state. Not that I’m giving anyone an assignment here….........

whatthefluther (13830

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From USGS: The total water supply of the world is about 333 million cubic miles (mi3)(a cubic mile is an imaginary cube measuring one mile on each side), or 1,386 million cubic kilometers (km3). A cubic mile of water equals more than 1.1 trillion gallons. A cubic kilometer of water equals about 264 billion gallons.

whatthefluther (13830

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More from USGS:
If all of Earth’s water (oceans, icecaps and glaciers, lakes, rivers, ground water, and water in the atmosphere was put into a sphere, then the diameter of that water ball would be a bit less than 1,400 kilometers across, a bit more than the distance between Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana. The picture at the top of this page illustrates this.

About 3,100 mi3 (12,900 km3) of water, mostly in the form of water vapor, is in the atmosphere at any one time. If it all fell as precipitation at once, the Earth would be covered with only about 1 inch of water.

The 48 contiguous United States receives a total volume of about 4 mi3 (17.7 km3) of precipitation each day.

Each day, 280 mi3 (1,170 km3)of water evaporate or transpire into the atmosphere.

If all of the world’s water was poured on the United States, it would cover the land to a depth of 90 miles (145 kilometers).

Of the freshwater on Earth, much more is stored in the ground than is available in lakes and rivers. More than 2,000,000 mi3 (8,400,000 km3)of freshwater is stored in the Earth, most within one-half mile of the surface. Contrast that with the 60,000 mi3 (250,000 km3) of water stored as freshwater in lakes, inland seas, and rivers. But, if you really want to find freshwater, the most is stored in the 7,000,000 mi3 (29,200,000 km3) of water found in glaciers and icecaps, mainly in the polar regions and in Greenland.

Where is Earth’s water located?
(Note: table gets jumbled when coipied so not provided….link below). ...notice how of the world’s total water supply of about 333 million mi3 of water, over 96 percent is saline. And, of the total freshwater, over 68 percent is locked up in ice and glaciers. Another 30 percent of freshwater is in the ground. Thus, surface-water sources (such as rivers) only constitute about 300 mi3 (1,250 km3) (about 1/10,000 th of one percent of total water), yet rivers are the source of most of the water people use.
USGS link

whatthefluther (13830

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