The Distribution of Water and Land

Class 6 Social Science · Chapter 2: Oceans and Continents · NCERT Exploring Society: India and Beyond section 2.1

Learn

Neel's grandfather was a sailor. He tells Neel that from a ship in the middle of the ocean, you can sail for many days and see nothing but water in every direction. "Our planet should be called Ocean, not Earth!" he laughs.

He is right: about 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by water and only about 29% is land. Look at the grid: out of 100 squares, 71 are water (blue) and 29 are land (orange). That's why Earth looks like a blue planet from space.

Almost all of this water (about 97%) is salty sea water. Only a small part is fresh water, and most of that is frozen in ice sheets and glaciers. So the fresh water in rivers, lakes and under the ground is very precious.

Land and water are not spread evenly. The Northern Hemisphere has much more land; the Southern Hemisphere is mostly ocean. Large land masses are continents and huge water bodies are oceans. Smaller water bodies partly enclosed by land are seas, gulfs and bays, like the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.

Explore: land or water?

1. Sort each card.

Remember

• About 71% of Earth's surface is water and 29% is land; most water is salty.
• The Northern Hemisphere has more land; the Southern Hemisphere is mostly ocean.

Quick check

Is most of the Earth's surface land or water?

1. Water (about 71%)
2. Land (about 71%)
3. Exactly half each
4. Only ice

Think about it

If there is so much water on Earth, why do many places face water shortages?

Practice

Practise with fresh questions at three levels (easy, medium, hard), some answered hands-on, with hints and worked answers. Get 4 of your last 5 right to finish the topic.