pro_junior Report This Comment
Date: January 29, 2009 03:03AM

Credit:
ADAM NIEMAN / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

CREDIT MUST BE GIVEN IN FULL

Caption
Global water and air volume. Conceptual computer artwork of the total volume of water on Earth (left) and of air in the Earth's atmosphere (right) shown as spheres (blue and pink). The spheres show how finite water and air supplies are. The water sphere measures 1390 kilometres across and has a volume of 1.4 billion cubic kilometres. This includes all the water in the oceans, seas, ice caps, lakes and rivers as well as ground water, and that in the atmosphere. The air sphere measures 1999 kilometres across and weighs 5140 trillion tonnes. As the atmosphere extends from Earth it becomes less dense. Half of the air lies within the first 5 kilometres of the atmosphere.

Anonymous Critic Report This Comment
Date: January 29, 2009 07:59PM

Someone needs to double check the math. It seems like the graphic represents only the world's fresh water. There's no way that little marble of H2O represents all the water in all the oceans, lakes, ice caps and underground aquifers on the planet.