Why is there salt in the ocean?
351068
Salt in the ocean comes from the land. The elements that make up salts, such as chlorine and sodium, started out in rocks. Water and acids eroded the rocks, and rivers carried the elements into the sea. The oceans usually contain 35 parts of salts for every 1000 parts of sea water. This is lower in some places where there is a lot of fresh water coming into the ocean. It is higher where the Sun is very strong and evaporates more of the water. When all the water is gone, the salts are left behind as solid, white crystals.
534720
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 the remaining water gets saltier and saltier as time passes. \n\nSALINITY\nSea salts Parts per Thousand \nchloride 19.3 o/oo \nsodium 10.7 o/oo \nsulfate 2.7 o/oo \nmagnesium 1.3 o/oo \ncalcium 0.4 o/oo \npotassium 0.4 o/oo \nbicarbonate 0.15 o/oo \nbromide 0.07 o/oo \nother 0.06 o/oo \nTotal Salinity 35.08 o/oo \nThe salinity (salt content) of ocean water varies. The oceans and seas contain roughly 5 x 10 16 tons of salts. One cubic foot of average sea water contains 2.2 pounds of salt. \n\nThe oceans are about 3.5% salt (by weight). Salinity is generally reported in terms of parts per thousand (abbreviated o/oo), the number of pounds of salt per 1,000 pounds of water; the average ocean salinity is 35 o/oo. \n\nThe saltiest water is in the Red Sea and in the Persian Gulf, which have a salinity of about 40 o/oo (due to very high evaporation rates and low fresh water influx). The least salty seas are in the polar regions, where both melting polar ice and a lot of rain dilute the salinity.
174421
A contrast of saltiness in water (halocline) can form in the ocean, because there is a tendency for less dense fresher water to float on top of denser saltier water. This happens for example when a river (fresh water) discharges into the ocean.\nThermocline forms when water at the surface of an ocean or lake is heated up, while the water below stays cool
1095674
Why is the Ocean Salty?\n\nAll 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.\nA simple experiment illustrates this. Fill three glasses with water from the kitchen faucet. Drink from one and it tastes fresh even though some dissolved salts are naturally present. Add a pinch of table salt to the second, and the water may taste fresh or slightly salty depending on a personal taste threshold and on the amount of salt held in a "pinch." But add a teaspoon of salt to the third and your taste buds vehemently protest that this water is too salty to drink; this glass of water has about the same salt content as a glass of sea water.\nObviously, the ocean, in contrast to the water we use daily, contains unacceptable amounts of dissolved chemicals; it is too salty for human consumption. \n\nHOW SALTY IS THE OCEAN?...\nHow 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.\n\nIf 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.\n\n\nIllustration: Sources of salts in the ocean.\n\nTHE ORIGIN OF THE SEA...\nIn popular language, "ocean" and "sea" are used interchangeably. Today's seas are the North and South Pacific, North and South Atlantic, Indian and Arctic Oceans and the Antarctic waters or seas.\nScientists believe that the seas are as much as 500 million years old because animals that lived then occur as fossils in rocks which once were under ancient seas. There are several theories about the origin of the seas, but no single theory explains all aspects of this puzzle. Many earth scientists agree with the hypothesis that both the atmosphere and the oceans have accumulated gradually through geologic time from some process of "degassing" of the Earth's interior. According to this theory, the ocean had its origin from the prolonged escape of water vapor and other gases from the molten igneous rocks of the Earth to the clouds surrounding the cooling Earth. After the Earth's surface had cooled to a temperature below the boiling point of water, rain began to fall and continued to fall for centuries. As the water drained into the great hollows in the Earth's surface, the primeval ocean came into existence. The forces of gravity prevented the water from leaving the planet.\n\nSOURCES OF THE SALTS...\nSea water has been defined as a weak solution of almost everything. Ocean water is indeed a complex solution of mineral salts and of decayed biologic matter that results from the teeming life in the seas. Most of the ocean's salts were derived from gradual processes such the breaking up of the cooled ign
446540
Geological movement over the years cut off it's source and outlet, thus isolating the Salton Sea. Water evaporates but the salt doesn't.
716135
Salt is not salt.\n\nSea salt contains a higher percentage of Potassium Chloride (KCl) than table salt which is mainly sodium Chloride (NaCl). It is the sodium content of salt that can cause damage if too much is ingested. The sodium content of the body's blood, interstitial and intracellular fluids is the key determinant in the volume of water the body retains.\n\nGenerally the more water the higher your blood pressure.\n\nSubstituting the sodium with potassium helps to lower the associated risks of excess salt intake.\n\nHowever excess potassium ingestion hasw problems of its own including dysfuntioning of electrically active cells (heart, nerves, muscles). But the concentrations needed are quite high.
1138696
The salinity of specific regions of the oceans depends on the ratio of influx of sweet water and evaporation (or in cold regions, formation of ice, which also increases the salinity of the remaining water) and on the vertical and horizontal currents. The northern Atlantic is the most saline oceanic region, if I recall correctly - probably because of much evaporation in the subtropic zone and then the gulf stream carrying the saline water north.\n\nThe dissolved salts are mainly:\n\ncations: Na+, with K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ as important additional components\n\nanions: HCO3-, Cl- as main components, SO4(2-) a distant third.\n\nTo get the salts, simply combine to neutral compounds.
831148
Sea salt melts it quickly.\n\n\nPeace
258485
As water flows down rivers into the ocean, minerals dissolve in it. When the water gets to the ocean, solar radiation vaporizes the water and leaves the dissolved minerals behind. Over time, millions and millions of years, the concentration of these minerals increases.  The Salton Sea in California is an example of a speeded up version of the process. About the year 1909, the Colorado River was diverted from its course and flowed into the Salton Sea, which was a dry low area. It took some time to block the diversion. By the time it was complete there was a new fresh water lake there.  During the last 90+ years, that fresh water lake has turned into a sea more saline than the ocean.
1057120
If I remember right, the crystalline structure of the salt breaks down, and the Na and Cl ions move freely in the water, dissolving into the water.\nSince the salt breaks down into free ions, that explains why salt water is such a good electrical conductor.
64688
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.\nIf 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.
115310
Why is the sea supposed to be on fire? You might want to add some detail.\nAnd besides seawater is not purely H20. There is Sodium Chloride, which makes the sea water salty. Plus there is plenty of mineral, garbage, fecis,etc. which makes the composition of sea water to be very complex.
320292
Scientific theories behind the origins of sea salt started with Sir Edmond Halley in 1715, who proposed that salt and other minerals were carried into the sea by rivers, having been leached out of the ground by rainfall runoff. Upon reaching the ocean, these salts would be retained and concentrated as the process of evaporation (see Hydrologic cycle) removed the water. Halley noted that of the small number of lakes in the world without ocean outlets (such as the Dead Sea and the Caspian Sea, see endorheic basin), most have high salt content. Halley termed this process "continental weathering".\n\nHalley's theory is partly correct. In addition, sodium was leached out of the ocean floor when the oceans first formed. The presence of the other dominant element of salt, chloride, results from "outgassing" of chloride (as hydrochloric acid) with other gases from Earth's interior via volcanos and hydrothermal vents. The sodium and chloride subsequently became the most abundant constituents of sea salt.\n\nOcean salinity has been stable for millions of years, most likely as a consequence of a chemical/tectonic system which recycles the salt. Since the ocean's creation, sodium is no longer leached out of the ocean floor, but instead is captured in sedimentary layers covering the bed of the ocean. One theory is that plate tectonics result in salt being forced under the continental land masses, where it is again slowly leached to the surface.
235582
The salt comes from the deposition a long period of time from  rivers and streams. Earth has salt naturally with in soils and such. Think of it this way, salt Was being deposited at a faster rate than it was being removed over millions of years giving salt water. The oceans are NOT getting saltier, it is in a state of equalibrium currently with the rate of removal over deposition.
467205
most people believe the seas are as much as 500 million years old because animals that lived then occur as fossils in rocks which once were under ancient seas. There are several theories about the origin of the seas, but no single theory explains all aspects of this puzzle. Many earth scientists agree with the hypothesis that both the atmosphere and the oceans have accumulated gradually through geologic time from some process of "degassing" of the Earth's interior. According to this theory, the ocean had its origin from the prolonged escape of water vapor and other gases from the molten igneous rocks of the Earth to the clouds surrounding the cooling Earth. After the Earth's surface had cooled to a temperature below the boiling point of water, rain began to fall and continued to fall for centuries. As the water drained into the great hollows in the Earth's surface, the primeval ocean came into existence. The forces of gravity prevented the water from leaving the planet.\n       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.\nOcean water is indeed a complex solution of mineral salts and of decayed biologic matter that results from the teeming 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.
1020573
it does but it's diluted.Some bodies of water have higher salt content than others.
676507
because sea water has a salt concentration in it, and it is corrosive, similar to an acid but not as destructive. and saltwater will kill plant life harming the surrounding enviroment. they do but they also have salt water filters on the firboats to help bring the salt concentration down.