Why is the ocean Salty?

Question

Water mass makes up 75% of the Earth. Whales produce approximately 40 gallons of sperm when they ejaculate. Put those two together, is that why the ocean is so salty?

(Laughing)

Answer 1

no it's not the sperm but because all the whales, pinguins, seals, squids, fishes, eels , sea serpent, crustacean, shrimps, and all the sea creatures pee in the water regularly

Answer 2

hhhmmmm...interesting thought there :)

but, try this :)

If you get into folk stories and mythology you will see that almost every culture has a story explaining how the oceans became salty. The answer is really very simple. Salt in the ocean comes from rocks on land. Here's how it works:

The rain that falls on the land contains some dissolved carbon dioxide from the surrounding air. This causes the rainwater to be slightly acidic due to carbonic acid (which forms from carbon dioxide and water). The rain erodes the rock and the acid breaks down the rocks and carries it along in a dissolved state as ions. The ions in the runoff are carried to the streams and rivers to the ocean. Many of the dissolved ions are used by organisms in the ocean and are removed from the water. Others are not used up and are left for long periods of time where their concentrations increase over time.

The two ions that are present most often in seawater are are chloride and sodium. These two make up over 90% of all dissolved ions in seawater. By the way, the concentration of salt in seawater (salinity) is about 35 parts per thousand. In other words, about 35 of 1,000 (3.5%) of the weight of seawater comes from the dissolved salts; in a cubic mile of seawater the weight of the salt, as sodium chloride, would be about 120 million tons. And, just so you don't think seawater is worthless, a cubic mile of it also can contain up to 25 tons of gold and up to 45 tons of silver! Before you go out and try alchemy on seawater, though, just think about how big a cubic mile is.

By some estimates, if the salt in the ocean could be removed and spread evenly over the Earth’s land surface it would form a layer more than 500 feet (166 m) thick, about the height of a 40-story office building.

Answer 3

This is Philosophy? :)
The oceans are salty because the NaCl or as everybody knows: salt, is easily dissolved by water. And there are many more minerals in water beside salt, but you cannot taste them.
The ocean holds a big amount of the planets mineral reserves, but it's too expensive to exploit from at the moment.

Answer 4

is it the waste dispossal from ships and airplane and the migratory birds caused all these that makes the ocean salty?
or numerous couples do xtra curricular on the shore especially during sunset but on the other hand . . the many solutes that get deposited in the ocean are what make the ocean salty... be reminded likewise that the ocean serves as the sink to which minerals and salts that come from terrestrial domains are deposited...

Answer 5

It's salty because I put one of those packets of salt you get in fast food places in it.

Answer 6

ummmmm, No. It has to do with the mineral content and the forces of evaporation.

Answer 7

salt , you dirty seaman .