Earth viewed from space looks like mostly (~ 70% of the surface) water---this is very misleading, however.
The water is concentrated at the Earth’s surface, so its relative mass compared to the whole Earth is small. It amounts to about 0.02 % of Earth’s mass!
The largest drop here represents the volume of all water, the mid sized drop freshwater, and the smallest drop (near Atlanta) all of Earth’s lake water.
96.5% of Earth’s water is in the oceans, 2.5% is freshwater, about 1% is salty water in the ground.
Freshwater resources are nearly 70% locked up in ice, and most of the rest is in the ground. Only 1.3 % is surficial freshwater, mostly in lakes. Lake Superior is about 10% of Earth’s total surficial fresh water, a remarkable concentration--Earth’s second largest. Two larger lakes are Lake Baikal, which has nearly twice the volume of Lake Superior, and Lake Tanganyika. Both are also located in rift valleys.
