What makes the ocean salty?

Answer 1

Why is the Ocean Salty?
All water, even rain water, contains some salt, but the water in the oceans contains vast amounts of salt, mostly sodium and chloride ions. It has been estimated that there are 50 million billion tons of salt in the ocean. While no one knows for sure, there are several theories about how Earth cooled from its original superheated origins over geological time. In the Earth's early stages, water vapor and other gases escaped from the molten core and as the Earth cooled, the water vapor began to condense and fall as rain. The rain over centuries gradually filled the large basins over the surface of the Earth, forming the oceans. Most of the salt derived from gradual processes such as the breaking up of the cooled igneous rocks of the Earth's crust by weathering and erosion, wearing down of mountains, and the dissolving actions of rivers and streams which transported minerals, including sodium and chloride, to the sea.

Why isn't all water salty, then? It is. Even rain water contains some salt, but not in the same concentrations as the oceans. Rivers and streams on all land surfaces gradually flow to the oceans carrying their loads of sediment and eroded minerals. In addition to other sediments and dissolved solids, rivers carry an estimated 4 billion tons of dissolved salts to the ocean each year. Some of this sinks to the ocean floor as sediment, so oceans are not becoming increasingly salty. The Sun's warmth also evaporates vast quantities of water from the ocean's surface, leaving salts behind. So the oceans are salty both because of the salts that are carried by runoff from the land and because evaporation draws freshwater into the atmosphere leaving salts behind.

Salinity varies across the oceans; the saltiest water is found in the Persian Gulf, because evaporation rates are high. The least salty regions are near the poles, because melting ice water and precipitation decrease the salinity concentrations. It is a good thing that the oceans are salty because the variations in salinity of the oceans, along with variations in temperature, drive the great ocean currents that transport heat around the globe. The oceans' thermohaline circulation (thermo meaning heat and haline meaning salinity) is one of the major driving forces for the Earth's climate.

A study by oceanographers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has found that tropical ocean waters have become more salty, while oceans nearer to the North and South Poles have become fresher. The researchers examined salinity measurements taken over recent decades over a region ranging from the tip of Greenland to the tip of South America. They found that surface waters in the tropics became significantly saltier while the oceans in the higher latitudes became less so because warming in the tropical regions increased the amount of evaporation, and therefore the concentration of salts left behind. The increase in evaporation resulted in increases in precipitation in higher latitudes which contributes to the decrease in salinity in those regions. One concern is that the increased freshness of water in the North Atlantic could disrupt the thermohaline circulation because it is in the North Atlantic that water becomes dense enough with salt to sink to the abyss. A significant change in salinity levels could slow the Great Conveyer Belt which could cause the North Atlantic region to cool significantly.

Answer 2

Why Is The Ocean Salty

Answer 3

All water, even rain water, contains dissolved chemicals which scientists call "salts." But not all water tastes salty. Water is fresh or salty according to individual judgment, and in making this decision man is more convinced by his sense of taste than by a laboratory test. It is one's taste buds that accept one water and reject another.

How salty the ocean is, however, defies ordinary comprehension. Some scientists estimate that the oceans contain as much as 50 quadrillion tons (50 million billion tons) of dissolved solids.

If the salt in the sea could be removed and spread evenly over the Earth's land surface it would form a layer more than 500 feet thick, about the height of a 40-story office building. The saltiness of the ocean is more understandable when compared with the salt content of a fresh-water lake. For example, when 1 cubic foot of sea water evaporates it yields about 2.2 pounds of salt, but 1 cubic foot of fresh water from Lake Michigan contains only one one-hundredth (0.01) of a pound of salt, or about one sixth of an ounce. Thus, sea water is 220 times saltier than the fresh lake water. What arouses the scientist's curiosity is not so much why the ocean is salty, but why it isn't fresh like the rivers and streams that empty into it. Further, what is the origin of the sea and of its "salts"? And how does one explain ocean water's remarkably uniform chemical composition? To these and related questions, scientists seek answers with full awareness that little about the oceans is understood.

Answer 4

The ocean was once without any salinity but became salty as it is today due to the erosion of sodium feldspars which increased the salt content within the ocean. Salt diapairs (which are found underground) formed long after these minerals were put in the ocean by evaporation of oceanic water in unique areas.

Answer 5

The worlds oceans are a soup of various minerals with common salt being the most readily identifiable to our sense of taste. However, every element known to man are found in a cup of common salt water. Also, and interesting enough, all the worlds bodies of water do not have the same chemical composition and some oceans are more "salty" than others due to the chemicals that are dissolved in them.

Answer 6

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What makes the ocean salty?

Answer 7

Evaporation of water from the ocean surface for millions of years makes the ocean salty as many minerals and salts are left behind.Many shells of marine life which are left behind after their death also contributes.

Answer 8

My salt comes from massive salt mines under Detroit, and Michigan in general. There used to be a warm salty ocean covering this area and when it dried up, all that salt was left. Just saw a N. Geographic special on it last night!

Answer 9

Pockets of real salt (yes, salt!) under the sand that wash into the water with the waves.

That's, of course, how we get our salt...from the ocean. Don't get all grossed out now, there's a purifying process before it's bottled and sold.

Sometimes salt is sold in large chunks (like it's found) that are about the size of your pinky nail each. But usually is ground and crushed into table-salt size.

Did you know that "real salt" fresh from the ocean (uniodized or with minerals added) is the healthiest for you but is often too strong to cook with so you have to cut back on the amount you use?

Answer 10

The ocean has always been salty but with more de-Salination plants being built it will be even saltier.