Question

A ----- is the major source of freshwater
a) Ground water
b) Sea water
c) Lake
d) None of the above

Answer 1

Hint: Water is essential for the survival of all living organisms. Some organisms can flourish on salt water, but the great majority of higher plants and most mammals require fresh water to live.

Complete Answer:
- Fresh water is any naturally occurring water apart from seawater and brackish water. Fresh water is normally characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Though the expression specially excludes seawater and brackish water, it does take in mineral-rich waters such as chalybeate springs.
- The term fresh water possibly includes water in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, icebergs, bogs, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater. The basis of almost all freshwater is precipitation from the atmosphere, like mist, rain and snow.
- Freshwater from these forms contains materials dissolved from the atmosphere and matter from the sea and land over which the rain bearing clouds have traveled. Rain is usually acidic in industrialized areas because of dissolved oxides of sulfur and nitrogen formed from the burning of fossil fuels
- In cars, factories, trains and aircraft and from various emissions. Acid rain results in pollution of lakes and rivers. In coastal areas fresh water may contain considerable concentrations of salts derived from the sea. This leads to high concentrations of sodium, chloride, magnesium and sulfate and other compounds.
- In desert areas, rain-bearing winds can pick up sand and dust and this can be deposited somewhere else in precipitation and cause the freshwater flow to be noticeably contaminated not only by insoluble solids but also by the soluble components of those soils.
- More than sixty eight percent of the freshwater on the Earth is brought into being in icecaps and glaciers and is considered as the largest freshwater ‘reservoir’ and over thirty percent is found in groundwater and this is used for drinking and other life purposes.

So, option a. Ground water is the correct answer.

Note: Fresh water is not at all times potable water. To a great extent of the earth fresh water is to a substantial degree inappropriate for human consumption without some treatment. Fresh water can easily become polluted by human activities or due to naturally happening processes such as erosion.