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SCIENCE

The Claim

There is more fresh water stored underground as groundwater than in all rivers and lakes combined.

Verified by Lenz ·

The Short Version

This claim is true. Multiple authoritative sources — including the U.S. Geological Survey and peer-reviewed research in Nature Geoscience — confirm that fresh groundwater vastly exceeds the volume of water in all rivers and lakes combined, by roughly 100:1 or more. Even conservative estimates of fresh groundwater alone (~10.6 million km³) dwarf the ~105,000 km³ in rivers, lakes, and streams. Note that ice and glaciers still hold more freshwater than groundwater overall, but the claim's specific comparison is well-supported.

Caveats

  • Ice and glaciers hold approximately 68% of Earth's freshwater — far more than groundwater (~30%) — so groundwater is not the largest freshwater reservoir overall, even though it vastly exceeds rivers and lakes.
  • Some commonly cited groundwater volume figures (e.g., 23.4 million km³) include both fresh and saline groundwater; however, fresh groundwater alone still exceeds rivers and lakes by orders of magnitude.
  • Much underground groundwater is ancient, deep, and practically inaccessible, so the large volume does not necessarily translate to readily usable water supply.

The Receipts

  1. Where is Earth's Water? | U.S. Geological Survey - USGS.gov

    U.S. Geological Survey - USGS.gov

  2. Scientists Produce First Data-Driven Estimate of Earth's Supply of Groundwater | Sci.News

    Sci.News

  3. How much natural water is there? | U.S. Geological Survey - USGS.gov

    USGS.gov

  4. Water cycle | U.S. Geological Survey - USGS.gov

    USGS.gov

  5. World Annual Fresh Water Losses Could Supply 280 Million People

    World Bank

  6. Global Accounting of Earth's Rivers - NASA Science

    NASA Science

  7. (PDF) The global volume and distribution of modern groundwater - ResearchGate

    ResearchGate

  8. Groundwater | Information on Earth's water

    Groundwater.org

  9. A World of Salt - GRID-Arendal

    GRID-Arendal

  10. How much water is in Earth's crust? - Live Science

    Live Science

+ 3 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

fresh watergroundwaterlakesrivers

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