The Ocean Is Salty—Why? 2024

You can get a sense of the extreme salinity of seawater if you’ve ever had the misfortune to take a mouthful of it. It’s bad enough that one tiny sip, but the entire amount of salt in the oceans is really astounding: They contain roughly 50 quadrillion tons—that’s fifteen zeros—of dissolved salt, according to scientific calculations based on an average of seven tablespoons per liter.
Even more amazing, it wasn’t constantly present. Grain by grain, year by year, it seeped into the ocean from the plains, hills, and mountains that make up the terrestrial environment. We must first understand a few concepts regarding salt in order to know why.

Where the Ocean Salt Comes From

Salt is much more than just a condiment for the meal. Any chemical with positively and negatively charged ions is referred to by this name in chemistry; Examples of such compounds are magnesium, potassium, sulfate, and sodium chloride, which we use in our cookery.

All around the world, rocks contain these various salts. Additionally, erosion pushes the minerals in the rocks—including salt—outward toward the sea as a result of natural processes like freezing and thawing that reduce the rocks into ever-tinier pieces.

Salts are also vulnerable to chemical weathering, a second damaging process, along the route because of their ions. Every water molecule has a positive charge on the oxygen atom and a negative charge on the hydrogen atom. Rain and rivers are able to encircle and dissolve salt ions as they pass across the terrain because opposites attract.
The similar phenomenon is also observed in subterranean volcanoes. “It occurs anywhere that water comes into contact with rocks,” explains Colin Stedmon, a Technical University of Denmark chemical oceanographer. “Water is the ultimate solvent.”

Why Is There Less Salt in Lakes and Rivers?

Eventually, every drop of that briny mixture ends up in the sea. However, rivers provide all of this, and they appear to be unaffected by the brackish material they carry.

It turns out that even purportedly “fresh” bodies of water contain some salt. Your taste senses won’t be able to notice it, but when those trace amounts get to where they’re going, they combine to create a really briny punch.
This is due to the fact that, once deposited in the ocean, salt becomes even more concentrated when water evaporates and enters the atmosphere. when a result, salt crystals are left behind while new rain crystals quickly dissolve the next batch of minerals.

Sea Salt

However, they don’t remain there indefinitely. Salt is eliminated from the oceanic system throughout time by a variety of natural mechanisms. When the concentration in shallow coastal waters reaches a certain point, some of it precipitates to create a layer on the bottom since there is no longer any room for dissolution. That’s where we acquire the unique flavor of our beloved sea salt.
Additionally, salt is drawn into the inner mantle by ocean water seeping via deep-sea fractures. There, it may reappear in rocks that may eventually resurface on the continents. At that point, the cycle begins again.

Still, there’s a big discrepancy between the salt and water cycles (the latter being thousands of times slower, according to Stedmon). Whereas salt takes millennia to travel from one area to another, water flows constantly. Because of this, our upland water supplies are still safe to drink, but the ocean has become extremely salinized.

But the cycles are in balance, even though their timescales are radically different. The sea isn’t getting any saltier, but it might dissolve significantly more salt than it does now. No matter how much the rivers contribute, a roughly equal amount is taken out. “There’s a very slow supply,” adds Stedmon, “balanced with a very slow removal.”

Why does the amount of salt in the sea matter?

Globally, salt may be one of the most underappreciated participants. It’s not just empty space; In fact, it controls a significant portion of Earth’s climate.

The planet’s ocean currents, which circulate warm and cold water, are essential climate regulators. And the main causes of such currents are, you understand, salinity, wind and water temperature.

Oceanographers use these measurements to model the future activity of currents, which, as already stated, also affect atmospheric climate, just as meteorologists use air temperature data to predict atmospheric conditions.

Actually, autonomous robotic sensors from the global ARGO program are scattered throughout the oceans. Like weather balloons in reverse, they often descend hundreds of feet to collect data. They pump a sample of saltwater through a conductivity cell to measure its salinity because we know exactly how effectively it conducts electricity. They then notify weather stations of the outcomes.

From shipping to wave energy harvesting, all of our interactions with the ocean depend on the forecasts they help make. Because currents also carry the nutrients needed to support marine life, we can use them to monitor fish populations.

“There’s a direct link between [current] circulation and how we use the sea,” as Stedmon states. Additionally, he mentions a crucial connection between salt and circulation.

read also : A “death pool” that kills everything “immediately” has been found at the bottom of the sea.

Why Is the Ocean Salty? (msn.com)

Actually, autonomous robotic sensors from the global ARGO program are scattered throughout the oceans. Like weather balloons in reverse, they often descend hundreds of feet to collect data. They pump a sample of saltwater through a conductivity cell to measure its salinity because we know exactly how effectively it conducts electricity. They then notify weather stations of the outcomes.

Actually, autonomous robotic sensors from the global ARGO program are scattered throughout the oceans. Like weather balloons in reverse, they often descend hundreds of feet to collect data. They pump a sample of saltwater through a conductivity cell to measure its salinity because we know exactly how effectively it conducts electricity. They then notify weather stations of the outcomes.