where is most of earths fresh water found
Fresh water The majority of fresh water on Earth is in ice caps.
Hydrosphere It has been estimated that there are 1,386 million cubic kilometers of water on Earth.[3] This includes water in liquid and frozen forms in groundwater, oceans, lakes and streams. Saltwater accounts for 97.5% of this amount. Fresh water accounts for only 2.5%. Of this fresh water, 68.9% is in the form of ice and permanent snow cover in the Arctic, the Antarctic, and mountain glaciers. 30.8% is in the form of fresh groundwater. Only 0.3% of the fresh water on Earth is in easily accessible lakes, reservoirs and river systems.[3] The total mass of the Earth's hydrosphere is about 1.4 × 1018 tonnes, which is about 0.023% of Earth's total mass. About 20 × 1012 tonnes of this is in Earth's atmosphere (for practical purposes, 1 cubic meter of water weighs one tonne). Approximately 71% of Earth's surface, an area of some 361 million square kilometers (139.5 million square miles), is covered by ocean. The average salinity of Earth's oceans is about 35 grams of salt per kilogram of sea water (3.5%).[4]