WJEC A-Level Geography 601-8455-3
Coastal Landscapes
Glaciated Landscapes
Tectonic Hazards
Changing Places
Water and Carbon Cycles
Global Migration
Global Governance of the Oceans
EcosystemsContemporary theme
Economic Growth and Challenge: IndiaContemporary theme
Economic Growth and Challenge: ChinaContemporary theme
Development in an African ContextContemporary theme
Energy Challenges and DilemmasContemporary theme
Weather and ClimateContemporary theme
Fieldwork and Geographical Skills
Water and Carbon Cycles
Global water stores and residence times
- 3 things to know
- A2 Unit 3
Overview
Largest single store of fresh water on Earth, approximate residence time of water in the atmosphere and fossil water.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Why is most of the world's fresh water unavailable to people?
Name the largest single store of fresh water on Earth.
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What proportion of the Earth's water is held in the oceans?
Model answer
About 97%, which leaves only around 3% as fresh water.
- 2
How is the world's fresh water divided between its main stores?
Model answer
Roughly 69% is locked in ice caps, glaciers and permanent snow, about 30% is groundwater, and only around 1% is in lakes, rivers, soil and the atmosphere combined.
- 3
Why is most of the world's fresh water unavailable to people?
Model answer
The great majority is frozen into ice sheets and glaciers or held deep underground, so it cannot readily be abstracted.
- 4
Name the largest single store of fresh water on Earth.
Model answer
The Antarctic ice sheet, which holds most of the world's ice and therefore most of its fresh water.
- 5
State the approximate residence time of water in the atmosphere.
Model answer
About nine or ten days.
- 6
Why is the atmospheric store of water so small and yet so important?
Model answer
It holds only about a thousandth of one percent of global water, but every drop of precipitation passes through it and it is what carries moisture from ocean to land.
Other ways to work this
The same content, four other ways.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Every question in Water and Carbon Cycles, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.