Question

Why does a water molecule, on average, stay in the ocean 333 times longer than in the atmosphere?

Answer 1

Water spends thousands to hundreds of thousands of years in the large ice sheets that cover Antarctica and Greenland. The oldest ice in Antarctica has been there for 2.7 million years. However, snow that falls in the winter may only stick around for a few days in mid-latitudes locations, where temperatures often rise above freezing causing the snow to melt, or up to six months closer to the Arctic, where temperatures stay below freezing all winter.

Water stays in soil for around one to two months although this varies greatly. Water that’s in soil moves into the atmosphere by evaporation and also by transpiration.

There are exceptions. For example, while water vapor spends relatively little time in the atmosphere, vapor that makes its way into the stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere above the troposphere where weather typically forms, may remain there for a long time. Also, while water generally spends thousands of years in the ocean before moving on, water in warm, shallow coastal areas may evaporate and leave the ocean very quickly as compared with other areas of the ocean. Hope this helps! I didn’t know if it was a multiple choice answer :)