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Q72 (IAS/2021) Geography › World Physical Geography › Ocean water properties Official Key

With reference to the water on the planet Earth, consider the following statements : 1. The amount of water in the rivers and lakes is more than the amount of groundwater. 2. The amount of water in polar ice caps and glaciers is more than the amount of groundwater. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Result
Your answer: —  ·  Correct: B
Explanation

The correct answer is Option 2. To understand this, we must look at the global distribution of Earth's water resources.

According to the USGS and NCERT data, approximately 97% of Earth's water is in the oceans (saline). Of the remaining 3% which is freshwater, the distribution is as follows:

  • Glaciers and Polar Ice Caps: Approximately 68.7% of freshwater.
  • Groundwater: Approximately 30.1% of freshwater.
  • Surface water (Lakes, Rivers, etc.): Only about 0.3% of total freshwater.

Statement 1 is incorrect: The volume of groundwater (30.1%) significantly exceeds the water found in all rivers and lakes combined (less than 1%).

Statement 2 is correct: Ice caps and glaciers constitute the largest reservoir of freshwater on Earth, holding more than double the amount of water stored underground as groundwater. Therefore, Option 2 is the only correct statement.

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PROVENANCE & STUDY PATTERN
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Don’t just practise – reverse-engineer the question. This panel shows where this PYQ came from (books / web), how the examiner broke it into hidden statements, and which nearby micro-concepts you were supposed to learn from it. Treat it like an autopsy of the question: what might have triggered it, which exact lines in the book matter, and what linked ideas you should carry forward to future questions.
Q. With reference to the water on the planet Earth, consider the following statements : 1. The amount of water in the rivers and lakes is m…
At a glance
Origin: Books + Current Affairs Fairness: Moderate fairness Books / CA: 5/10 · 5/10
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This is a textbook 'Sitter' directly from NCERT Class XI Physical Geography (Chapter 13, Table 13.1). No current affairs or advanced books were needed. The strategy is simple: whenever NCERT provides a data table comparing natural phenomena (volumes, lengths, composition), memorize the descending order hierarchy immediately.

How this question is built

This question can be broken into the following sub-statements. Tap a statement sentence to jump into its detailed analysis.

Statement 1
On planet Earth, is the total volume of water in rivers and lakes greater than the total volume of groundwater?
Origin: Web / Current Affairs Fairness: CA heavy Web-answerable

Web source
Presence: 5/5
"Groundwater* | 0.62% | | Freshwater Lakes | 0.009% | | Rivers | 0.0001%"
Why this source?
  • Provides percentage breakdown of Earth's water showing Groundwater = 0.62% while Freshwater Lakes = 0.009% and Rivers = 0.0001%.
  • These percentages indicate groundwater holds a far larger share of Earth's water than lakes or rivers.
Web source
Presence: 5/5
"Another 30 percent of freshwater is in the ground. Surface-water sources, such as rivers, only constitute about 300 cubic miles (about 1/10,000 th of one percent of total water)."
Why this source?
  • States that about 30 percent of freshwater is in the ground (groundwater).
  • States surface-water sources such as rivers constitute only about 300 cubic miles (about 1/10,000th of one percent of total water), showing rivers are tiny compared to groundwater.

Environment and Ecology, Majid Hussain (Access publishing 3rd ed.) > Chapter 1: BASIC CONCEPTS OF ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY > hydrosphere > p. 9
Strength: 4/5
“About 71 per cent of Earth's surface is occupied by water. Some 97.3 per cent of its volume is currently in the ocean, the maximum extent of which is in the southern hemisphere. Of the 2.7 percent terrestrial water, most is polar snow and ice. Groundwater (the majority below soil level) is in lakes and rivers.”
Why relevant

Gives the global breakdown: oceans hold ~97.3% of Earth's water and '2.7 percent terrestrial water' is the pool that contains lakes, rivers, groundwater, ice, etc.

How to extend

A student can take 2.7% as the total non‑ocean water and combine it with percentage shares for groundwater and lakes from other snippets to compare volumes.

Environment and Ecology, Majid Hussain (Access publishing 3rd ed.) > Chapter 1: BASIC CONCEPTS OF ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY > Lakes > p. 23
Strength: 5/5
“Lakes contain approximately 0.017 per cent of the Earth's water, or about 0.7 per cent of that not contained in the oceans. Slightly more than half is held in freshwater lakes (lakes with outlets); the rest is saline lakes (lakes without outlets). About 75 per cent of total volume of freshwater lakes occurs in the large lakes of North America, Lake Baikal in Russia, and the large lakes of East Africa. Te residence time of water in the big lakes is about ten years, except the Caspian Sea in which the residence time is about 200 years.”
Why relevant

Quantifies lake water: lakes contain ~0.017% of Earth's water (about 0.7% of non‑ocean water).

How to extend

Compare this absolute lake fraction (0.017%) to the groundwater fraction derived from the non‑ocean total to judge which is larger.

Environment and Ecology, Majid Hussain (Access publishing 3rd ed.) > Chapter 1: BASIC CONCEPTS OF ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY > groundwater > p. 22
Strength: 5/5
“Te water contained in the pore spaces of rock and soil is known as groundwater. About 20 per cent of water not in the oceans, occurs as groundwater. Soil moisture accounts for about 0.005 per cent of the Earth's water, or about 0.5 per cent of the water not contained in the oceans. Even at this low percentage, there is more water in the soil than is contained in river channels. Tere are two components of the groundwater: (i) water that is migrating down to the water table, and (ii) water that is retained in the soil. Water in the soil is drawn out by evaporation from the soil surface and by plants.”
Why relevant

States groundwater is 'about 20 per cent of water not in the oceans' and also notes there is more water in soil (part of groundwater/soil moisture) than in river channels.

How to extend

Multiply 20% by the 2.7% non‑ocean pool (from snippet 1) to estimate groundwater as a percent of Earth's total and directly compare that to the lakes fraction (snippet 2) and the implied small river fraction.

Geography of India ,Majid Husain, (McGrawHill 9th ed.) > Chapter 3: The Drainage System of India > Inland Water Resources of India > p. 33
Strength: 3/5
“Surface water resources include the rivers, ponds, lakes and tanks. The mean flow of water in all the river basins of India is approximately 1869 km3. Owing to the tropological and hydrological constraints only 690 km3 (32%) of available surface water is utilized. The Ganga, the Brahmaputra and the Barak rivers account for one third of the total surface water resources. * The Ganga and Brahmaputra basins have about 46% of the total underground water. According to one estimate the total ground water reserve up to a depth of 300 m is about 3700 mham, almost ten times of the annual rainfall.”
Why relevant

Gives an example scale: an estimate of total groundwater reserve up to a depth (for India) being much larger than annual rainfall and mentions basin shares, illustrating that groundwater volumes can be large compared with surface flows.

How to extend

Use this as an example that groundwater reservoirs can substantially exceed annual surface flows, supporting a plausibility check that groundwater may exceed river+lakes in volume globally.

Statement analysis

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