Salt Water vs Fresh Water
Describe and graph the amounts of salt water and fresh water in various reservoirs to provide evidence about the distribution of water on Earth
What a learner can do afterwards
- State that about 97% of Earth's water is salt water in the oceans
- Describe where fresh water is found: glaciers/ice caps, groundwater, rivers, lakes
- Create or interpret a graph showing the relative amounts of salt water vs fresh water
The lesson
Earth looks like a blue marble from space because water covers most of it. But almost all of that water is salty ocean water. Only a tiny sliver is fresh water, the kind we drink and use.
That thin sliver of fresh water is not all in one place either. Most of it is frozen solid in glaciers and ice caps. The rest sits underground as groundwater, with just a small part in rivers and lakes.
Picture all of Earth's water poured into 100 cups. 97 of those cups would be salty ocean water. Only 3 cups would be fresh. Of those 3 cups, most is frozen ice, a smaller part is groundwater, and just a bit is in rivers and lakes.
When you read a graph like this, find the biggest bar first. The ocean bar is always the biggest one, because salt water makes up about 97% of all the water on Earth.
About 97% of Earth's water is salty ocean water, and only about 3% is fresh water, most of it frozen in glaciers and ice.
Watch it
Where it sits
This opens up
Nothing builds on it yet.
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.