How come bodies of water (lakes, rivers, wetlands, oceans even…) exist above ground instead of the water simply being absorbed by the earth?
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Any time you see standing water you are seeing a tabletop: the top of the *water table*. This is exactly where the ground stops being 100% saturated. Imagine you take a bowl full of dirt. Scoop out a handful of dirt and make a little hole. Now pour water in until the depression fills with water. It’s the exact same as a lake. The ground at the level of the water table is saturated.
It’s complicated but basically there’s an insane amount of water beneath our feet. Most fresh water I believe is underground. All surface rivers and streams in the world account for something like .001% of fresh water. But there are permeable and impermeable layers of rock in the earth so water gets trapped in certain layers.
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