Sponsored by: By choosing to build from a pre-drawn plan â as opposed to hiring a residential architect to create a custom home â you've already taken a big step toward building a great home at the right price. But not all pre-drawn plans cost the same to build. You can still keep costs down and have a beautiful home by keeping several principles in mind. First, and most obviously, a larger home costs more to build and more to heat, cool, and maintain. That's why you'll find many smaller homes in this collection.
Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface; the oceans contain 96.5% of the Earth's water. The Antarctic ice sheet, which contains 61% of all fresh water on Earth, is visible at the bottom. Condensed atmospheric water can be seen as clouds, contributing to the Earth's albedo.
If Earth was the size of a basketball, all of its water would fit into a ping pong ball. How much water is that? It's roughly 326 million cubic miles (1.332 billion cubic kilometers), according to a recent study from the U.S. Geological Survey. Some 72 percent of Earth is covered in water, but 97 percent of that is salty ocean water and not suitable for drinking. There's not a lot of water on Earth at all, said David Gallo, an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts.