13.0 Earth’s Fresh Water

If you think of freshwater on Earth’s surface, lakes and rivers might come to mind. But most of Earth’s freshwater is frozen. Much of it occurs in glaciers, like the one pictured here. This massive sheet of ice is Portage Glacier in Alaska. It contains a huge amount of frozen water.

Where else is frozen water found on Earth? Besides solid ice, in what other states does Earth’s freshwater exist? And how does water change from one state to another? This chapter answers these and many other questions about Earth’s freshwater.