Earth's water vs land volume (shown in spheres) image?
January 10, 2008 1:09 PM   RSS feed for this thread Subscribe

ISO: Photo-like diagram of the ratio of total volume of water to total volume of land on Earth. NOT the surface area - the TOTAL respective volumes of the planet.

I knew I should've saved it when it made the rounds the first time, now I can't find it.

It's a picture of two spheres comparing Earth's water vs. land composition. One sphere represents the total land mass, the other smaller blue one represents the total water mass.

Hope me?
posted by yoga to science & nature (9 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
What parts of the earth do you consider "land"? Keep in mind that much of Earth's core is made of iron, and is not typically what one thinks of when hearing the word "land".
posted by burnmp3s at 1:18 PM on January 10


Is it this one - Adam Nieman's Visions of Science winner?
posted by Wolfdog at 1:21 PM on January 10 [2 favorites]


How do you measure "volume" for land?
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 1:25 PM on January 10


Yes Wolfdog, that's the one. Thanks!
posted by yoga at 1:26 PM on January 10


Looks about right. Radius of Earth = 6378000 m so volume of Earth = 1.08678129 × 10^21 m^3. Average depth of ocean over 3/4 of Earth's surface = 3800 m so it over the whole surface it would form a hollow sphere 2850 m thick. Subtract Earth's volume from that of the larger sphere to get a volume for the water of 1.45753101 × 10^18 m^3. The radius of a sphere of that volume would be 703358 m, a little over 1/10th the radius of the planet, as depicted.

I guess the little sphere on the globe on the right is supposed to be the volume of the atmosphere?
posted by nicwolff at 1:47 PM on January 10


Yep.
posted by nicwolff at 1:49 PM on January 10


Wow, that's actually more water than I expected.
posted by hattifattener at 2:33 PM on January 10


What an amazing illustration! Is there a higher-res version out there somewhere?
posted by ZakDaddy at 9:01 PM on January 10


*fixes running toilet*
posted by dhartung at 9:43 PM on January 10


« Older Before they were stars (pre-fa...   |   Looking for a (essay, book) so... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments



Related Questions
Chemists: sink my water car! September 16, 2008
Calculate length of a pipe from the volume it holds March 22, 2007
water through a funnel March 5, 2007
Making water conductive with out salt December 1, 2006
How many T cars does that fill? April 25, 2006