puzzled about the sea?

Question

why is the sea so salty

Answer 1

Ocean water is a complex solution of mineral salts and of decaying/decayed biological matter that results from the abundance of life in the seas. Most of the ocean's salts were derived from gradual processes such the breaking up of the cooled igneous rocks of the Earth's crust by weathering and erosion, the wearing down of mountains, and the dissolving action of rains and streams which transported their mineral washings to the sea. Some of the ocean's salts have been dissolved from rocks and sediments below its floor. Other sources of salts include the solid and gaseous materials that escaped from the Earth's crust through volcanic vents or that originated in the atmosphere. This process has been occurring for hundreds of millions of years, and therefore early oceans wouldn't have been as salty as they are today.

The ocean is not 'diluted' by the addition of fresh water through rain and rivers because the saltiness of the ocean is the result of several natural influences and processes, the salt load of the streams entering the ocean is just one of these factors. In addition, salts become concentrated in the sea because the sun's heat distills or vaporizes almost pure water from the surface of the sea and leaves the salts behind (this process is part of the continual exchange of water between the Earth and the atmosphere that is called the hydrologic cycle).
or Most of the salt in the oceans came from land. Over millions of years, rain, rivers, and streams have washed over rocks containing the compound sodium chloride (NaCl), and carried it into the sea. You may know sodium chloride by its common name: table salt! Some of the salt in the oceans comes from undersea volcanoes and hydrothermal vents. When water evaporates from the surface of the ocean, the salt is left behind. After millions of years, the oceans have developed a noticeably salty taste.

Answer 2

When rain fell on mountainous areas it dissolved the salts and other minerals and then flooded the land creating streams and rivers as they went. oceans and seas were also formed. The rain, now containing these salts and minerals returned back to the seas and oceans. Hence seas and oceans taste salty.

Answer 3

Water on the land can dissolve salt outcrops, and can weather many minerals, especially clays and feldspars, and leach the sodium out of them. This sodium can be carried into the ocean by rivers. Some salt is supplied by water through the ground directly to the sea—called submarine groundwater discharge (SGWD). Such water is often very concentrated in minerals. Ocean floor sediments release much sodium, as do hot springs on the ocean floor (hydrothermal vents). Volcanic dust also contributes some sodium.

Incidentally, the saltiness of the sea is good evidence that the earth is not 4 billion years old. At current estimated rates of sodium input and output it would take just 62 million years to reach current salt levels - assuming they were saltless in the beginning.

Evolutionists like to ignore this troubling (for them) fact :-)
http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/578/

Answer 4

good question,
the rocks that are under the sea are salty when they get mixed up with the water in the ocean it makes the ocean salty.

Answer 5

Hope this helps

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_water

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_are_the_oceans_salty

Answer 6

because god didnt like pepper.