Water
[edit]
Elevation histogram showing the
percentage of the Earth's surface above and below sea level
See also: Hydrosphere
There is no life without water.[9] It has been described as
the universal solvent for its ability to dissolve many substances,[10]
[11]
and as the solvent of life.[12] Water is the only common substance
to exist as a solid, liquid, and gas under conditions normal to life on
Earth.[13] The Nobel Prize winner Albert Szent-Györgyi referred to
water as the mater und matrix: the mother and womb of life.[14]
Composition of seawater. Quantities
in relation to 1 kg or 1 litre of sea water.
The abundance of surface water on Earth is a unique feature in
the Solar System. Earth's hydrosphere consists chiefly of the oceans
but technically includes all water surfaces in the world, including
inland seas, lakes, rivers, and underground waters down to a depth
of 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). The deepest underwater location
is Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean,
having a depth of 10,900 metres (6.8 mi).[note 1][15]
Conventionally, the planet is divided into five separate oceans, but
these oceans all connect into a single world ocean.[16] The mass of
this world ocean is 1.35×1018 metric tons or about 1/4400 of Earth's
total mass. The world ocean covers an area of 3.618×108 km2 with a
mean depth of 3682 m, resulting in an estimated volume
of 1.332×109 km3.[17] If all of Earth's crustal surface was at the same
elevation as a smooth sphere, the depth of the resulting world
ocean would be about 2.7 kilometres (1.7 mi).[18][19]
The Earth's water cycle
About 97.5% of the water on Earth is saline; the remaining 2.5%
is fresh water. Most fresh water – about 69% – is present as ice
in ice caps and glaciers.[20] The average salinity of Earth's oceans is
about 35 grams (1.2 oz) of salt per kilogram of seawater (3.5% salt).
[21]
Most of the salt in the ocean comes from the weathering and
erosion of rocks on land.[22] Some salts are released from volcanic
activity or extracted from cool igneous rocks.[23]
The oceans are also a reservoir of dissolved atmospheric gases,
which are essential for the survival of many aquatic life forms.
[24]
Sea water has an important influence on the world's climate, with
the oceans acting as a large heat reservoir.[25] Shifts in the oceanic
temperature distribution can cause significant weather shifts, such
as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation.[26]
Jupiter's moon Europa may have
an underground ocean which supports life.
Altogether the ocean occupies 71 percent of the world surface,
[4]
averaging nearly 3.7 kilometres (2.3 mi) in depth.[27] By volume,
the ocean provides about 90 percent of the living space on the
planet.[4] The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke has pointed out
it would be more appropriate to refer to planet Earth as planet
Ocean.[28][29]
However, water is found elsewhere in the Solar System. Europa, one
of the moons orbiting Jupiter, is slightly smaller than the Earth's
Moon. There is a strong possibility a large saltwater ocean exists
beneath its ice surface.[30] It has been estimated the outer crust of
solid ice is about 10–30 km (6–19 mi) thick and the liquid ocean
underneath is about 100 km (60 mi) deep.[31] This would make
Europa's ocean over twice the volume of the Earth's ocean. There
has been speculation Europa's ocean could support life,[32][33] and
could be capable of supporting
multicellular microorganisms if hydrothermal vents are active on
the ocean floor.[34] Enceladus, a small icy moon of Saturn, also has
what appears to be an underground ocean which actively vents
warm water from the moon's surface.[35]
