As water flows in rivers, it picks up small amounts of mineral salts from the rocks and soil of the river beds. This very-slightly salty water flows into the oceans and seas. The water in the oceans only leaves by evaporating (and the freezing of polar ice), but the salt remains dissolved in the ocean - it does not evaporate.
So do the remaining water gets saltier and saltier as time passes?
2007-06-17 01:01:16 · 10 answers · asked by RealArsenalFan 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
Actually, salts are also removed from the system by formation of the rock record. Interstitial salt water can be found in virtually all salt water deposited sediments. That is why salt water is a common by-product of oil production.
The amount of salt in the oceans varies considerably, depending upon where one samples the oceans. In the geologic past, several bodies of salt thousands of feet thick have been formed in shallow marine environments...e.g., the Zechstein in Europe and the Louann Salt in the Gulf Coast of the U. S.
The amount of salt in the seas is probably best envisioned as a natural process in which concentrations of salts vary over long periods of geologic time.
2007-06-17 02:12:40 · answer #1 · answered by ekil422 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Evaporation tends to concentrate salt. The Mediterranean Ocean is saltier than the Atlantic Ocean. In fact there is always a constant outflow of denser salt water at the bottom of the Strait of Gibraltar and an equal inflow of less dense salt water at the surface. Heavy rain can temporarily dilute salt water at the surface of the seas. However, the average saltiness of the oceans is believed to be relatively constant over great stretches of time. Salt being added by land erosion is also being removed by plate tectonics (subduction) and some minerals precipitate as nodules at the bottom of the sea.
2007-06-17 03:08:23 · answer #2 · answered by Kes 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The Dead Sea certainly is becoming more and more salty as time goes on and more and more of its water evaporates but this is more the exception to the rule. There are several places on the planet that are just vast salt plains and they at one time were seas or oceans that have long since dried up.
2007-06-24 09:39:18 · answer #3 · answered by Jim R 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Saltness
2016-12-16 13:43:22 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the effects of the melting glaciers and loss of the ice caps from global warming is actually lessening the salt content of the oceans. It's just like a glass of salt water, if you add fresh water to it your percentage of salt to water will decrease.
2007-06-24 08:47:18 · answer #5 · answered by hdjayhawk 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, it does not, because there actually is a mechanism for removal of minerals from sea water. Sodium is incorporated into sediment at the sea floor, removing salt from the water, and the salinity of sea water has been constant for billions of years.
2007-06-17 01:06:18 · answer #6 · answered by DavidK93 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Depends. With the melting of the ice caps, it may actually be getting less salty. That's water that has been out of circulation for 10's of thousands of years.
2007-06-17 01:53:40 · answer #7 · answered by Lorenzo Steed 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Saltness is dependent upon the temperature due to which the evaporation occurs......
If more water evaporates the saltness will be more........
Also depends upon the source of fresh water.......
Less fresh water more saltness........
No relation to time.....
2007-06-17 01:48:05 · answer #8 · answered by chinmay625 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no after evaporating it comes in the form of rain. even people are using salts for various purposes like chloride is used for cooking, nitrate is used by plants to produse protien.
2007-06-21 01:56:53 · answer #9 · answered by kanimozhi 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
theres a lot more to the answer, but the evaporation comes back in close to equal amounts in the form of rain, eh?
2007-06-20 05:44:32 · answer #10 · answered by njdevil 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋