3 ms·
It does separate liquid fresh water from surface lakes and rivers which makes me believe the middle ball includes reasonably accessible ground water.
by rtkwe 2y ago
It does separate liquid fresh water from surface lakes and rivers which makes me believe the middle ball includes reasonably accessible ground water.
- dredmorbius 2y agoMy read is that the two smaller spheres are non-exclusive, and that the smallest is included in the 2nd. The breakout is for comparison: surface freshwater (total) and surface freshwater (lakes and rivers) relatively.
- rtkwe 2y agoYes they're pretty clearly subsets of each other. There's a better graphic on this page: https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/where-earths-water https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/sci... Direct link: https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/wss-where-is-earths-water-barchart.png?itok=C2EMUiCp https://d9-wret.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/... That one actually has percentages on the subsets too for interesting differences like glacier and icecap volume vs ground water (which I think still excludes the kind of deep mantle water mentioned up thread because it's not usably extractable).