Picture shows how all the water on Earth would fit into one 860-mile-wide ball

Short but sweet as the picture says it all really. But have they really done the sums properly.
Here is the link

When people talk about our water supply running out, it's often difficult to imagine - but according to the U.S. government's Geological Survey, all the water on Earth would fit into an 860-mile-wide bubble. Around 70% of Earth's surface IS water-covered - but it's a very, very thin layer. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

I'm sorry... I can't believe that.

I dont think thats accurate. I really had to do the math myself to actually believe such a claim.

reply to post by jazz10


It looks perfectly accurate to me.

I'm pretty sure this is talking about FRESHwater. Not all water. That little bubble would completely disappear into the Marianas Trench without so much as a wave to James Cameron.

reply to post by jazz10


Why is the ball over north america..?

Originally posted by webpirate
I'm pretty sure this is talking about FRESHwater. Not all water. That little bubble would completely disappear into the Marianas Trench without so much as a wave to James Cameron.

That is what I was thinking as well.....has to be fresh water.

I doubt it is only fresh water because it's shown next to a completely barren dry Earth. Water doesn't make up a huge percentage of the Earth.

Originally posted by Outofcontrol
I'm sorry... I can't believe that.

I dont think thats accurate. I really had to do the math myself to actually believe such a claim.

Have to agree, it just seems so off!

I'm no mathematician or expert but I have a hunch it would be a much larger 'bubble', maybe am wrong? but that picture is pretty unbelievable.

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
I doubt it is only fresh water because it's shown next to a completely barren dry Earth. Water doesn't make up a huge percentage of the Earth.

No not at all.....Only around 70%.......Pretty small amount......

A bit more information from the USGS site on it....apparently it is correct and includes ALL water.

ga.water.usgs.gov...

reply to post by Chrisfishenstein


70% of the surface.

I have no way of fact checking this myself and it may all just be a joke, but for all of the people who for some reason will not read the short article attached, it does say it includes ALL water on earth.

the article does state that the earth is covered 70% in water. if this is accurate that 70% is only the SURFACE of the earth. that changes the perspective quite a bit. the article says that 70% is a very thin layer.

it looks like the article is saying ALL the water not just the fresh water.

if the article is accurate that's pretty crazy!!! can anyone verify this??

Originally posted by Vasa Croe
A bit more information from the USGS site on it....apparently it is correct and includes ALL water.

ga.water.usgs.gov...

that answers my question. that picture makes a really big statement. wow.

reply to post by pasiphae


It's true! Scary but true - check out this link to see just how much fresh water we have!

renovatingtherustbelt.wordpress.com...

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
I doubt it is only fresh water because it's shown next to a completely barren dry Earth. Water doesn't make up a huge percentage of the Earth.

No not at all.....Only around 70%.......Pretty small amount......

70% of the surface is covered in water.

You’ve heard the saying that the Earth is mostly water. But what percent of Earth is water? Salt water oceans make up 71% of the Earth’s surface, which the other 29% made up of the Earth’s continents and islands. But there are also freshwater lakes and glaciers that cover the Earth’s surface.

Of all the water on Earth, 97.5% is contained within the oceans, while the remaining 2.5% is freshwater lakes and frozen water locked up in glaciers and the polar ice caps – almost 69% of the fresh water on Earth is ice. If you could melt all the water on Earth, and the Earth’s surface was perfectly smooth, the water would rise to an altitude of 2.7 km.

But what percent of the Earth is water? Not just the surface of the Earth, but the actual mass of the Earth? Scientists calculate that the mass of the oceans on Earth is 1.35 x 1018 metric tonnes, which is 1/4400 the total mass of the Earth. In other words, the oceans are 0.02% of the total mass of the Earth.

What Percent of Earth is Water?

Its got to be an optical illusion! I don't buy it.

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
I doubt it is only fresh water because it's shown next to a completely barren dry Earth. Water doesn't make up a huge percentage of the Earth.

No not at all.....Only around 70%.......Pretty small amount......

70 percent is covered in water. Not made up of water.

The Earth weighs 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (6E+24) kilograms. The water on the earth weighs around 1,260,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilos.

The weight of the Earth divided by the weight of its water is 4 761.90476

Not very much of a percent is it?

Did some quick math, and the OP's source seems way off.

Two different source put the water on Earth to be 326 million trillion gallons. source and source

With 1 cubic mile containing about a trillion gallons, that gives us about 326 million cubic miles, also from source

Using the 860 mile diameter in the OP diagram, we have a radius of 430 miles. Using the formula for the volume of a sphere of V = 4/3 * pi * r^3 give us 106,009,337.5 square miles, well short of the 326 million square miles needed to hold the Earth's water.

In summary, we would need more than 3 of those round balls of water.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


You cheated, I had to do the math myself.

They say the planet surface is 3/4ths water, but I wonder if they take into a account the all the sea life.