why is the sea salty?
602519
Salt or Sodium Chloride is highly soluble in water.  Salt is naturally occurring and large bodies of water that cover vast numbers of square kilometers come in contact with salt.  Over time it dissolves causing the water to be high in TDS or total dissolved solids such as NA CL.  When the water from oceans evaporates, the salt drops out of solution which increase the salinity of the remaining water.   The evaporated water returns to earth as fresh water which flows back into the oceans and the cycle continues.   Large Salt caverns are ancient spaces that have not been exposed to water for millions of years.
26865
Average salinity of sea water is 35 parts per thousand. Yes it does differ "slighty" place to place. The salinity of the ocean on the west coast is different than that of the east. It varies due to the various factors like the amount of freash water flowing into that part of the sea, water from ice, temperature, ocean currents etc.\n\nThe salt of the sea has been due to accumulation of various salts carried into it by the rivers. The water returns to the land due to the water cycle but the salt remains in the sea and over the (thousands of) years it has become much salty.\n\nThere are also other source like degrading biological matter.
11387
Basically because of a phenomenon called Osmosis, which is the exchange of water or other liquids through a membrane in order to get an equilibrium between dissolved substances and the pressure on the membrane.\n\nThe liquids in the human body have a salt content of roughly 0.9% (aka isotonic solution). Sea water has salt contents up to 3.5% (disregarding the Dead Sea and similar evaporation basins).\n\nLow salt content water (from the body cells) will go through the membranes into the salt water. Effectively, the body dries up even though a person has drunk salt water.\n\nNote, however, that salt water near isotonic values can be drunk in case of emergencies. E.g. before river mouths or in inland seas or bays, freshwater addition can dilute sea water to survivable salt contents.
722560
human skin when compared to saline ocean or sea water ,the skin itself is more saline due to the sweat we produce
636644
they have a natural process of osmosis that stabalises them with the water and salt content of the sea when they drink the water so that they get enough water in their bodies while being able to live in the salty sea.
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.
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.
836580
Salt water has a lower freezing point than fresh water.
550319
salt water and fresh water.
798090
It's because salt is an electrolyte, a substance containing ions (charged atoms or molecules). The charges are what allow the atoms to conduct electricity, I think.
923875
Salt water is denser than fresh water.
95964
because it has NaCl in it
24556
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 ar
980326
this was answered right here in Yahoo Answrs about 3 months ago:\n\n\n The river water keeps moving .This shows that there is no way of settlement of any minerals-this is the reason why the river wateris not salty.\n\n \nThe salinity of the ocean is caused by high mineral content. When water evaporates it leaves behind all of sediments and becomes pure water. When it falls as rain or snow it remains in this pure state. As it travel through rivers it picks up sediments. Most of the sediments remain in solid form and are pushed along by the river. However, salt dissolves into the water. When the water reaches the ocean, the salt deposit go as well. Over thousands and millions of years, the oceans have developed a high salt content. It's the same reason that lakes that have no outlet, such as the Great Salt Lake or the Dead Sea, become salty. \n\nAs a result of global warming, though, more fresh water is entering the ocean and its salinity levels are dropping. This can have significant environmental effects over time.
298760
Because the salt content will dehydrate you. And severe dehydration could kill you especially if you are out at sea and medical treatment is not nearby.
257210
one day a man ask a genie for everlasting salt from a big saltshaker b/c his family was poor and he planned to sell it. then when he was going home in his boat and got raided by PIRATES! then pirates stole the salt shaker and the man threw a grenade at the boat and BLEW it up! then the salt shaker was shaking  out salt in the middle of the ocean! And thats y its salty. Hope u enjoyed!!! : )
385501
mostly mineral, you'll probably find sodium chloride (salt) in it, but it depends on which water body is evaporated.