1. Global cash and cash equivalents

1.1 Water in nature

Water is a ubiquitous element in nature. Its total mass represents about the 1/4,500th part of that of the Earth, or 1,350 × 10 ¹⁵ t.

The earth's crust contains considerable quantities of this water, in the form of vadose water (infiltration and percolation) or deep water, sometimes called fossil water (stagnant water, connate water*), all of meteoric origin, plus juvenile water, magmatic water expelled from the initial magma by crystallization.

It is difficult to give even an approximate order of magnitude for the amount...