Summary: Water

Read the summary and the most important questions on Water

• 1 Water reserves

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• In which states can water be found on earth?

  it, is next to sulfur, during the eruption of a volcano, the only substance found on earth in three different states of matter, solid (ice), liquid (water), and gaseous (water vapour) 

• How many water is there estimated to be on earth?

  around 1.4 billion cubic kilometres. This amount of litres equals the number 14 followed by twenty zeros!

• What is the distribution of all fresh water?

  69% glaciers an permanent snowpacks
  30% fresh ground water
  0.3% fresh water in lakes and rivers 
  0.9% remaining fresh water, such as water in the soil, ice/caps permafrost and marshes 

• What is the global sediment of rain and snow on earth?

  113.000 km2 of water

• So what amount of fresh water is really available for animals, plants and people?

  at most between 9,000 and 14,000 km3 

• If we compare the amount of water of 1994 to 1974 how has it decreased per person?

  there is only half the amount of water available per person.

• How many of the population does not have the fulfill they need?

  one fifth

• What will happen with water during  the course of the century?

  it will become the scarcest natural resource for the production of food and for human consumption. 80% of the water we need is used for agriculture, the industry and the production of energy. Not efficient, less than half used effectively.

• What can we do to improve the efficient use of water in a certain area or to increase supplies. 

  - use more economically. We can do with far less water, irrigate farmland more efficiently
  -build flood control dams and reservoirs for storing rainwater. 
  -surface water may be sourced from a different area, but the cost of transportation is very high.
  -you can drill for ground water, but after a while the soil may dry out
  -science enables us to win fresh water form salty water (desalination)

• 2 Water a very special substance

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• What are the four properties of water?

  1. density 
  2. specific heat capacity
  3. High boiling point
  4. Dissolving capacity