Set against the velvet blackness of outer space, our home planet looks like a “blue marble”—bright, shimmering, and mostly fluid. Indeed, it is the abundance of water on its surface that gives Earth its blue appearance. Water covers approximately 70 percent of our world’s surface. So it would seem that finding water is a trivial task. Yet only 2.5 percent of the Earth’s water is fresh and thus suitable for consumption.
Not only that, but of that 2.5 percent, more than two-thirds is locked away in glaciers and not particularly able to help meet the growing demands of society. By far, the most abundant and available source of fresh water is underground water supplies or wellsprings known as aquifers. Therefore, scientists and natural resource managers are very interested in tracking how these underground reservoirs of fresh water are changing with time. Read more
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