why sea water is salted ?
407396
Everyone who has been to the beach knows that seawater is salty. Everyone also knows that fresh water in rain, rivers, and even ice is not salty. Why are some of Earth’s waters salty and others not? There are two clues that give us the answer. First, “fresh” water is not entirely free of dissolved salt. Even rainwater has traces of substances dissolved in it that were picked up during passage through the atmosphere. Much of this material that “washes out” of the atmosphere today is pollution, but there are also natural substances present.\n\nAs rainwater passes through soil and percolates through rocks, it dissolves some of the minerals, a process called weathering. This is the water we drink, and of course, we cannot taste the salt because its concentration is too low. Eventually, this water with its small load of dissolved minerals or salts reaches a stream and flows into lakes and the ocean. The annual addition of dissolved salts by rivers is only a tiny fraction of the total salt in the ocean. The dissolved salts carried by all the world’s rivers would equal the salt in the ocean in about 200 to 300 million years.\n\nA second clue to how the sea became salty is the presence of salt lakes such as the Great Salt Lake and the Dead Sea. Both are about 10 times saltier than seawater. Why are these lakes salty while most of the world’s lakes are not? Lakes are temporary storage areas for water. Rivers and streams bring water to the lakes, and other rivers carry water out of lakes. Thus, lakes are really only wide depressions in a river channel that have filled with water. Water flows in one end and out the other. \n\nThe Great Salt Lake, Dead Sea, and other salt lakes have no outlets. All the water that flows into these lakes escapes only by evaporation. When water evaporates, the dissolved salts are left behind. So a few lakes are salty because rivers carried salts to the lakes, the water in the lakes evaporated and the salts were left behind. After years and years of river inflow and evaporation, the salt content of the lake water built up to the present levels. The same process made the seas salty. Rivers carry dissolved salts to the ocean. Water evaporates from the oceans to fall again as rain and to feed the rivers, but the salts remain in the ocean. Because of the huge volume of the oceans, hundreds of millions of years of river input were required for the salt content to build to its present level.\n\nRivers are not the only source of dissolved salts. About twenty years ago, features on the crest of oceanic ridges were discovered that modified our view on how the sea became salty. These features, known as hydrothermal vents, represent places on the ocean floor where sea water that has seeped into the rocks of the oceanic crust, has become hotter, and has dissolved some of the minerals from the crust, now flows back into the ocean. With the hot water comes a large complement of dissolved minerals. Estimates of the amount of hydrothermal fluids now flowing from these vents indicate that the entire volume of the oceans could seep through the oceanic crust in about 10 million years. Thus, this process has a very important effect on salinity. The reactions between seawater and oceanic basalt, the rock of ocean crust, are not one-way, however; some of the dissolved salts react with the rock and are removed from the water.\n\nA final process that provides salts to the oceans is submarine volcanism, the eruption of volcanoes under water. This is similar to the previous process in that seawater is reacting with hot rock and dissolving some of the mineral constituents.\n\nWill the oceans continue to become saltier? Not likely. In fact the sea has had about the same salt content for many hundred of millions if not billions of years. The salt content has reached a steady state. Dissolved salts are being removed from seawater to form new minerals at the bottom of the ocean as fast as rivers and hydrothermal processes are
723545
It saltier then fresh water so the difference in densities is less
1097925
yes... it's called reverse osmosis.\n\nBasically it pushes the sea water through a filter that doesn't allow the salt to pass.\n\nAlso there is turning the water into steam and then condensing it into liquid again.  This leaves the salt behind as it is converted to steam.\n\nDesalinization is usually expensive and not very efficient either.
844403
The reason why sea water is salty is of course because of the presence of salt. However, how does it get into the ocean?? \n\nAs water evaporates, it rises and cools and becomes clouds. It then falls off as rain. These are fresh water as the process is like distillation. As you may know, water is a pretty good solvent and as it washes down the ground, it dissolves small amount of minerals, which includes salt, NaCl.\n\nAs you know, water does not just stay on the ground, it flows from high place to low, carry all these minerals with it. As it moves to the lowest point on earth, there is no where to go, so it accumulates. As time goes on, it forms ocean. As this process continues, all the salts are washes into the ocean with no exit, as a result, make the ocean more and more salty.\n\nThe dead sea, is indeed the lowest level on earth, and is indeed the most salty sea. The water density is so high (because it has so much salt in it) that almost anything can float on it.
415923
Yes, salt water is a sodium chloride solution with Na+ and Cl- ions. when two seperate condutors are immersed in the solution without contacting each other and a bulb or any electrical appliance is placed across the conductors the positive and negative ions migrate and conducts electricity.
681194
Salts love water because they are ionic, and can have polar interations with the polar water molecules. The salt will soak up water from the air, and eventualy will become hydrated salt.
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.
376556
Because of the salt. Salt makes living things/people dehydrated. If a thirsty person drank salt water, they would be even more thirsty.
261609
The Salt absorbs the water from you body, hence you will need water to compensate.
589999
It is actually easier for fish to live in salt water than fresh water because the ionic balance of the water is closer to that of their own blood. Fresh water fish constantly have to pump out the excess water they accumulate due to osmosis. Marine mammals (seals, whales etc) maintain their ionic balance in water by having protective compounds in their skin which acts as a waterproof barrier.
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Dear Friend,\n\nSalt 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.\n\nThe right amount of salt is a very important part of our diet. In ancient times, salt was worth its weight in gold. People used it to flavor and preserve their food. Without salt, the food would spoil. For this reason, salt became a symbol of purity. Some sacrifices in the Old Testament included salt (Leviticus 2:13; Ezekiel 43:24). Jesus called faithful people "the salt of the earth," and the apostle Paul said that our speech should be "seasoned with salt" (Colossians 4:6).
49972
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.
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.
427084
The density of water is greatly affected by salinity, or the salt concentration.  When salts are dissolved into pure water, the density of water increases because the salts have a greater density than the water; thus freshwater floats on salt water.  This is also why your ability to float differs between a swimming pool and an ocean.
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Water in the sea can vary in salt concentration, temperature and in ion ratios. The first two create differences in the density of the water and therefore warm / less salty (light) water floats on cold/ salty (heavy) water.\n\nSince these currents do not mix easily, different ratio's of ions in seawater can maintain their difference. These differences are created by sources of ions (vulcanic activity which can create specific ions, incoming rivers) or by the fact that certain ion concentrations (HCO3-, HSOx-) are very temperature dependent. \n\nusefull info can be found on http://www.biosbcc.net/ocean/marinesci/02ocean/swcomposition.htm
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The sun causes the water to evaporate leaving the salt behind.
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.