how do the ratio of ions in seawater vary over the globe and what are the likely reasons for this?
968670
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
797061
yes.  saltwater is salty, meaning it has a lot of ions.  Lots of ions conduct electricity.
49521
Asording to the U.S. NAVY the AVERAGE salinity for seawater. is between 37 and 40 PPM (parts per million)  the worlds oceans are constantly getting saltier though.\nsalinity of the ocean is important in calculating sound speed velocity.  which is important for submarines as well as ships that hunt submarines.\n\nWe    HAVE TO   know how SALTY the ocean is.
88784
when the salt in in the water, it contribute ions in the water. and ions will conduct the electricity. the salt tester will test the electricity in the water, therefore, the salt compound will be measured
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.
810698
1. VERY PURE water is a poor conductor of electricity. However, very small \namounts of impurities, especially salts, greatly increase the electrical\nconductivity of water.\n2. The main carriers of electrical current are dissolved ions. If a \nbattery is connected to a container of water so that\nthe (+) and (-) poles of the battery are immersed in the water, the\npositive ions will migrate toward the (-) pole and the negative ions will\nmigrate toward the (+) pole (electrical opposites attract). This closes the\n"switch" and electric current flows through the solution.\n3. Different ions can help carry the electric current, some more / some \nless, depending upon their electrical charge and their size. More highly charged, \nsmaller ions are more efficient carriers of the electrical current.\n4. The higher the concentration of ions, the greater is the conductance of \nthe solution.\n5. There is a complication however, the water and / or certain of the ions \nmay undergo a chemical reaction to one or the other, or both of the electrodes.\nYou may not want to introduce this in the beginning but it does happen.\n6. None of the ion electrical current carriers of salts dissolved in water \nare as mobile as "free" electrons in a metal are. And the differences are very\nlarge. For example, if the conductivity of  VERY PURE WATER is 0.000004\nconductivity units, the conductivity of a saturated solution of common\ntable salt NaCl is 23 conductivity units, and the conductivity of a typical\nmetal such as copper wire is 60, 000, 000 conductivity units. So while the\nions in a dissolved salt behave something like "free" electrons, they are\nvery slow and sluggish moving. \nCompletely demineralized water actually does not conduct electricity, and is\nwidely used as a coolant in high powered radio amplifiers.  However, when\nexposed to even small amounts of impurities, (even normal air), It becomes a\nfair conductor.  It is not the water conducting this electricity so much as\nthe dissolved minerals in it.  Some of these minerals are decent insulators\nthemselves, but when dissolved in water still allow conduction because the\nmolecules are now free to move around.\nIn ionic liquids these electrons remain \nstuck to big, round atoms,\nand these atoms do the swimming around, relatively slowly, dragged by \ntheir electric charge.\nSort of a ball and chain thing.\nElectrons in metal are "free"; they slip rather freely across all the \natoms, and do not need to drag one around with them.\nSo, carrier mobilities in ionic liquids are some orders of magnitude lower \nthan carrier mobilities in metals.\nSo their resistance is higher.\nIf you had a snail-trail of salt-water or molten salt with the same length \nand cross-section as a metal wire,\nit would use up half the voltage and get hot trying to pass one tenth the \ncurrent the wire can handle.\nIn a metal, each metal atom contributes about one mobile electron that \nhelps the current flow.\nIn molten salts like NaCl, every atom has a + or - charge and contributes \nto the current flow.\nSo there are just as many carriers per unit volume as in a metal.\nBut in water-solutions of salts, the salt is a minority.\nUsually less than 10%  of the solution is ions, so that makes the \nconductivity even poorer.\nThat is part of why we will never make our power lines out of seawater in \npipes.
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.
59648
You'll probably want to know typical values for drinking water and sea water.\n\nNormally, water contains dissolved salts with Na, K, Ca, Mg and depending on quality Fe and Mn as main kations and carbonate (and hydrogen carbonate), chloride, sulfate and to (hopefully) lesser extent nitrate and phosphate ions. There are numerous possibilities to combine these ions into solid salts, making the exercise fairly pointless.\n\nIf your teacher insists, Na and K for all the anions except HCO3(1-) and CO3(2-) which usually are written as Mg and Ca salts.\n\nCommon trace elements/compunds include Al, Si, NO2(1-), Li.\n\nMore or less routinely monitored heavy metal traces include As, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Ni, Hg, Pb, Sb, Tl, Zn
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.
851280
(m)\n\n1. VERY PURE water is a poor conductor of electricity. However, very small amounts of impurities, especially salts, greatly increase the electrical conductivity of water.\n2. The main carriers of electrical current are dissolved ions. If a \nbattery is connected to a container of water so that the (+) and (-) poles of the battery are immersed in the water, the positive ions will migrate toward the (-) pole and the negative ions will migrate toward the (+) pole (electrical opposites attract). This closes the\n"switch" and electric current flows through the solution.\n3. Different ions can help carry the electric current, some more / some  less, depending upon their electrical charge and their size. More highly charged,  smaller ions are more efficient carriers of the electrical current.\n4. The higher the concentration of ions, the greater is the conductance of the solution.\n5. There is a complication however, the water and / or certain of the ions may undergo a chemical reaction to one or the other, or both of the electrodes. You may not want to introduce this in the beginning but it does happen.\n6. None of the ion electrical current carriers of salts dissolved in water are as mobile as "free" electrons in a metal are. And the differences are very large. For example, if the conductivity of  VERY PURE WATER is 0.000004 conductivity units, the conductivity of a saturated solution of common table salt NaCl is 23 conductivity units, and the conductivity of a typical metal such as copper wire is 60, 000, 000 conductivity units. So while the\nions in a dissolved salt behave something like "free" electrons, they are very slow and sluggish moving
34823
Just like oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen; NaCl is found everywhere on earth.\n\nBeing water soluable, it has been getting moved around ALOT.  When water evaporates completely, it will leave the salt behind.  The dead sea is a perect example.  Left long enough the dead sea will form a solid mass of dry salt.  Salt deposits like these can be fould all over buried the world.\n\nOne of the balancing acts with irrigation is that salt will build up in soils to point that nothing will grow.
351009
Water with a high salt concentration, and plasma (electrically charged gas)
873513
"Ocean water is  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."
539352
Salinity and the latitude is related because of the thermohaline circulation of the ocean waters. This means that the waters circulated around ocean and are driven by density (not temperature). The thermohaline circulation means that the are denser waters at high latitude due to high evaporation rates found in the tropics. Hope that helps
870765
The rain that falls on the land contains some dissolved carbon dioxide from the surrounding air. This causes the rainwater to be slightly acidic due to carbonic acid (which forms from carbon dioxide and water). The rain erodes the rock and the acid breaks down the rocks and carries it along in a dissolved state as ions. The ions in the runoff are carried to the streams and rivers to the ocean. Many of the dissolved ions are used by organisms in the ocean and are removed from the water. Others are not used up and are left for long periods of time where their concentrations increase over time.\n\nThe two ions that are present most often in seawater are are chloride and sodium. These two make up over 90% of all dissolved ions in seawater. By the way, the concentration of salt in seawater (salinity) is about 35 parts per thousand. In other words, about 35 of 1,000 (3.5%) of the weight of seawater comes from the dissolved salts; in a cubic mile of seawater the weight of the salt, as sodium chloride, would be about 120 million tons. And, just so you don't think seawater is worthless, a cubic mile of it also can contain up to 25 tons of gold and up to 45 tons of silver! Before you go out and try alchemy on seawater, though, just think about how big a cubic mile is.\n\nBy some estimates, if the salt in the ocean could be removed and spread evenly over the Earth’s land surface it would form a layer more than 500 feet (166 m) thick, about the height of a 40-story office building.
826959
The basic answer to that is:\nAs water falls on land and runs into the oceans it picks up minerals.\nWhen it gets to the ocean the minerals get mixed into the ocean water.\nSunlight causes the water to evaporate but leaves the minerals behind.\nThe water then falls on land again repeating the process.\nEventually the salt content in the oceans built up to where it is today. And continues to build up.
879719
They are actually not similar.\n\nWater, unlike most substances, becomes less dense when it freezes. This is why ice floats and (in a way) one of the properties of water that allows life as we know it to exist.\n\nEvaporation of sea water leaves behind solutes (salt, minerals, etc) that become more concentrated over time, increasing overall density of the water left behind (if it's not replenished with fresh water). This is why you see people float so easily on dead-sea type bodies of water (the Aral Sea, Great Salt Lake, the Dead Sea).