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Most water in Earth's atmosphere and crust comes from saline seawater, while fresh water accounts for nearly 1% of the total. The vast bulk of the water on Earth is saline or salt water, with an average salinity of 35‰ (or 3.5%, roughly equivalent to 34 grams of salts in 1 kg of seawater), though this varies slightly according to the amount of runoff received from surrounding land.
Antarctica provides the water hemisphere with the majority of Earth's ice. Most of the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and the whole Southern Ocean, are in the water hemisphere. The water hemisphere is approximately 89 percent water (almost all pertaining to the World Ocean), 6 percent dry land and 5 percent polar ice cap. [1]
Water is a basic necessity of life. Since two thirds of the Earth is covered by water, the Earth is also called the blue planet and the watery planet. [notes 1] The hydrosphere plays an important role in the existence of the atmosphere in its present form. Oceans are important in this regard.
Most of Earth's surface is ocean water: 70.8% or 361 million km 2 (139 million sq mi). [96] This vast pool of salty water is often called the world ocean, [97] [98] and makes Earth with its dynamic hydrosphere a water world [99] [100] or ocean world. [101] [102] Indeed, in Earth's early history the ocean may have covered Earth completely. [103]
Earth's approximate water volume (the total water supply of the world) is 1.386 billion cubic kilometres (333 million cubic miles). [24] Liquid water is found in bodies of water, such as an ocean, sea, lake, river, stream, canal, pond, or puddle. The majority of water on Earth is seawater. Water is also present in the atmosphere in solid ...
The ocean is a major driver of Earth's water cycle. Ocean water represents the largest body of water within the global water cycle (oceans contain 97% of Earth's water). Evaporation from the ocean moves water into the atmosphere to later rain back down onto land and the ocean. [68] Oceans have a significant effect on the biosphere.
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The deuterium to hydrogen ratio for ocean water on Earth is known very precisely to be (1.5576 ± 0.0005) × 10 −4. [35] This value represents a mixture of all of the sources that contributed to Earth's reservoirs, and is used to identify the source or sources of Earth's water.