Water is just about everywhere rivers, lakes, on in the oceans, glaciers reservoirs air, soil, and in living tissue(Figure 5.1). All of these lesser of the constitute Earth's In all, the water content laden hydrosphere comprises about 1.36 billion cubic kilometers(326 million cubic miles). The vast bulk of it, about 97.2 percent, is stored in the global oceans. Ice sheets and glaciers account for another 2.15 percent, leaving only 0.65 percent to be divided among lakes, streams, groundwater, and the atmosphere(see Figure 1.11, p. 12) Although the percentages of Earth's total water found in each of the latter sources is but a small fraction of the total inventory, the absolute quantities are great.