Earth is the only planet in the solar system where water appears in solid, liquid, and vapor

states at common temperatures.

I. The globe
Total water of Earth is about 1.384 109 km3, enough to cover Earth’s surface to a depth of
2.7 km.
The quantity of water is discussed in two categories, saline water and freshwater.
A. Saline water
Water is saline if it contains more than 1000 mg of dissolved solids per liter or one
part per thousand by weight (ppt).
B. Freshwater
Total freshwater of Earth is about 0.0360 ´ 109 km3, or less than 3% of saline water
on Earth, including oceans and saline lakes.
1. Icecaps and glaciers
Water in solid state is formed in polar regions and mountains of higher elevation.
The total volume is equivalent to 27.8 ´ 106 km3, the biggest entity of all freshwater
in the world.
2. Water under the ground
Beneath the ground, water can be divided into two distinct zones. Immediately
below the ground surface is the zone of aeration. Here, both water and air are present
in the ground. Under the zone of aeration is a layer in most areas of the ground where
sands, gravel, and bedrock are saturated with water. This is the zone of saturation.
The boundary between these two zones is the groundwater table.

3. Lakes
The total surface area of freshwater lakes in the world is about 8.45 ´ 103 km2,
while the area for saltwater lakes is about 6.91 ´ 105 km2.

4. Rivers
The volume of water stored in rivers is more difficult to estimate than that stored in
lakes. The estimates, besides length, require information on average width and
depth for each river and sum of estimated water for all streams on Earth. There are
uncountable numbers of rivers, streams, creeks, and brooks on Earth with widths
varying from a few meters to many tens of kilometers.
5. Atmospheric water
Earth is embraced by a layer of water vapor with a density up to 4% by volume (3%
by weight) near the surface and decreasing to about 3 to 6 ppm by volume at 10 to
12 km above the ground.
II. The U.S.
The total volume of water in the continental U.S. is around 146 ´ 103 km3, of which 86% or
126 ´ 103 km3 is under the ground and 13% or 19 ´ 103 km3 is in freshwater lakes.
A. Rivers
Although the country has a network of rivers 5.86 ´ 106 km long (excluding Alaska), the total
volume of water in rivers is only 50 km3, or about 0.263% of the volume of water in freshwater
lakes.
B. Lakes
The five Great Lakes of North America — Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and
Ontario (Table 5.6) — are the most important inland freshwater bodies of the U.S.
and Canada. Spanning more than 1200 km in width, they contain a total volume of
22.7 ´ 103 km3, about 18% of total water in lakes and six times greater than that in
rivers worldwide.
III. The hydrologic cycle
Water continues to change its state in response to changes in temperature and
atmospheric pressure, or to flow to a new location due to gravitational effect.

A. The hydrologic processes

1. Precipitation
Precipitation is water delivered to Earth from the atmosphere in solid or liquid
states. For precipitation to occur, water vapor in the atmosphere has to be cooled
down below the dewpoint through certain temperature-cooling mechanisms. This
makes water vapor condense into liquid or solid states around condensation nuclei.
2. Evapotranspiration
, evapotranspiration is a collective term used to describe total loss of water to the air in vapor
state. Thus, evapotranspiration is a negative item in the watershed hydrologic balance.
3. Runoff
Precipitation that reaches the soil surface can be entirely or partly absorbed by the soil in the
process of infiltration. The infiltrated water can be lost to the air through evapotrans- piration,
be retained in the soil as soil moisture storage, become ground water through percolation, or
run laterally in the soil profile as interflow or subsurface runoff to reach stream channels.
Runoff is considered the residual of the hydrologic system in a drainage basin.

B. The hydrologic budget

In a hydrologic system, the law of conservation applies and water input must be equal to water
output plus storage.
1. The globe
For Earth as a whole, there is neither gain nor loss in runoff, and what goes up
(vapor- ization, V) must be equal to what comes down (precipitation, Pt).

2. The U.S.
Annual precipitation for the 48 contiguous states is about 76 cm over the entire
surface. About 55 cm, or 72.4%, of the precipitation is vaporized back to the air,
leaving 21 cm, or 27.6% to become runoff in rivers and streams.

3. Watersheds
For watersheds of small size the boundary for surface water may not be in agreement
with the boundary for ground water. This can make watershed leakage a serious
problem because subsurface water can flow out to or flow in from neighboring
watersheds.
C. The energy budget
The hydrological cycle described above is a continuous change of the state of water
between Earth and the atmosphere. A tremendous amount of energy is involved in
every component and process of this cycle. Without this supply of energy, there
would be no hydrologic cycle and no climate changes.