BASIN: All the Water in the World Worksheet


	Current Theme: Learning & Service
	All the Water in the World Worksheet

All the Water in the World

1. Start with 1 liter of water. One liter is 1,000 milliliters (ml). Imagine that this is all of the water on earth.

2. Measure the following amounts of water. Pour out the oceans water into a large container. Pour the other amounts into smaller containers and label them.

Oceans 972 ml
Icecaps and Glaciers 20 ml
Groundwater 6 ml
Freshwater Lakes 1 ml
Inland seas and salt lakes 1ml
Atmosphere 0.1 ml (1/10 ml)
All rivers 0.01 ml (1/100 ml)

3. How much water is fresh water?

4. Can people really use all of this fresh water? Why? Why not?

Thank You! BASIN was a community project which benefitted from over 1000 hours of public volunteer time. BASIN was highlighted by the US EPA in a national case study in its 2001 handbook Delivering Timely Environmental Information to Your Community. Thank you to all volunteers, and especially to the late Jim Waterman, BASIN Project Coordinator!

BASIN was supported by the US EPA, the City of Boulder, the Keep it Clean Partnership, BCWI and BCN