ShareThe Water Cycle - Water, Water Everywhere
ANSWER: MORE THAN 97% OF EARTH'S WATER IS FOUND IN ITS OCEANS |
Seventy percent of Earth is covered by ocean. Do you know how much of Earth's water is in the ocean? Take a guess and then highlight the box to the right and find out the answer.
The polar ice caps contain about 2.2% of the water on the planet. Do the math ... this means that more than 99% of the Earth's water is found in either oceans or polar ice caps. Lakes rivers, streams, clouds, glaciers, etc., make up less than one percent of the water on this planet.
Model it!
Materials:
- One-liter beaker (If you do not have a beaker, use a large jar and a measuring cup)
- Two small jars
- Water
- Measuring cup that measures in milliliters (ml.)
- Small graduated cylinder or spoon to measure one ml.
Procedure:
- Measure exactly one liter (1000 ml.) of water and pour it into one jar. This water will represent all the water on Earth.
- Determine how many ml. of water would represent 1% of the water in the jar. This will represent the water in the ground, lakes, streams, clouds, glaciers, etc.
- Determine how many ml. of water would represent 2.2% percent of the water in the jar. This will represent the frozen ice caps.
- Measure the amount your determined in the above step and pour it in the remaining jar.
- The water remaining in the beaker represents the ocean water on Earth.
Congratulations!
You have just made a very simple model of how water is distributed on
Earth.
Analysis:
- Write a short paragraph explaining your model.
- Graph your data using either a pie or bar graph.
Sample pie graph
Sample bar graph
