Explanation: How much of planet Earth is made of water? Very little, actually. Although oceans of water cover about 70 percent of Earth's surface, these oceans are shallow compared to the Earth's radius. The featured illustration shows what would happen if all of the water on or near the surface of the Earth were bunched up into a ball. The radius of this ball would be only about 700 kilometers, less than half the radius of the Earth's Moon, but slightly larger than Saturn's moon Rhea which, like many moons in our outer Solar System, is mostly water ice. How even this much water came to be on the Earth and whether any significant amount is trapped far beneath Earth's surface remain topics of research.

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: Earth - water - Zemlya Publikacii so slovami: Earth - water - Zemlya
Sm. takzhe: Zemlya iz mezhplanetnogo prostranstva Zahod Zemli s "Oriona" Protivosumerechnye luchi i festival' planet Voshod Zemli: video Udarnyi krater Manikuagan: vid iz kosmosa Zemlya i Luna: vid s drugoi storony Snezhnaya burya 1938 goda v Verhnem Michigane Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>