what makes the oceans salty wher does the salt come from?

Answer 1

The basic process works something like this:

Fresh water comes from ice, usually glacial melts in mountains, or from rain, produced by evaporation. Both of these processes produce pure water - frozen ice cannot contain salt (salt that might have been dissolved in liquid water gets deposited beneath glaciers when they form), and when water evaporates, it leaves salt behind. This fresh water, as it flows over land, picks up some salt and sediment along the way - not very much, but a little bit. Eventually all of this is deposited in the ocean. There is no way for any of this salt or sediment to leave the ocean, since it can't be carried away by erosion, etc.; subsequently water evaporates and forms clouds (which rain out over land, continuing the process), meaning that over time, the concentration of salt in the ocean gradually increases. Of course eventually this becomes saturating - the ocean can only hold so much dissolved salt - and the remainder precipitates out along the ocean floor.

Answer 2

Just to clear up some misconceptions written by Astaganza, there is a place for salt to go, it is subducted along with water along continental subduction zones where it is incorporated into igneous rocks in back arc island spreading zones (e. g. the Andes Mountains). Also, current thinking places much oceanic salts originating from mid-oceanic spreading ridges, or in the form of black smokers and white smokers. It has been determined that continental input of oceanic salts is small by measuring the salt content of rivers at their deltas.

Answer 3

Boy. I'm glad I didn't try to answer this one.

Answer 4

God's tears !!