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Ocean water
Name: Lou
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 1999
Question:
Why is the ocean saltwater instead of freshwater?
Replies:
As water flows down rivers it dissolves salt from the rocks
over which it flows. This salt is concentrated in the ocean
when the ocean waters evaporate.
-
grant
I would like to add to the answer that seawater is
essentially evaporated riverwater. The ratio
of different types of ions in seawater are not the
same as in river water. Many of the ions in river
water, such as metals, nitrate, silicate, phosphate,
some carbon compounds, are removed from the water by
organisms using them for growth. Other ions are removed
by physical processes. The major ions in seawater,
potassium(K), sodium(Na), Magnesium(Mg), Sulfate (SO4),
chloride(Cl), Calcium (Ca), are all removed from the
system at the same rate that they are supplied by river
I would like to add that the mixing time for the ocean is
about 1500 years, but it takes a water molecule about
38,000 years to make the round trip from land to ocean and
back to land as rain. Therefore, the ocean is mixing much
faster than ions are being supplied. That is why the
ocean stays essentially constant.
stacie m clark
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Update: February 2012
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