Why Is The Ocean Salty? The Science Explained Simply
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When I went to the beach for the first time, I was amazed by the scenery. But then a question popped into my mind: What does the ocean taste like? I dipped my finger into the water and tasted it. Yuck! It was extremely salty. But why? Rivers and lakes are not salty at all. In this article, we’ll explain why the ocean is salty in simple words.
1. How Salty Is The Ocean?
So first, what does "salty" actually mean? Well, "salty" means a taste that is like salt, and is one of the five basic tastes. Next, people sometimes get confused with the word "salinity", so what does it mean? Salinity simply means the total amount of salt in a body of water, like a cup of ocean water, and even in your body!
In fact, the ocean contains much more salt than rivers or lakes.
Do you know where the salt in the ocean comes from? Actually, it starts on land! Rainwater is not completely pure; it's slightly acidic. When it falls on rocks, it slowly breaks them down into tiny pieces, including salt. These tiny salt particles are carried by rivers into the ocean and are held on the bottom for a long time!
But why doesn't the salt go away? The answer is because of the sun! When the sun heats the ocean water, the water turns into vapor and rises into the sky, but the salt stays behind. (I actually tried this as a chemistry experiment at school.) Over millions of years, the salt keeps building up, making the ocean salty. So every time you taste the ocean water, that means you taste millions of years of rocks, rain, and sunshine!
4. Rivers vs Oceans: Freshwater and Saltiness Differences
You might think that only the ocean has salt, but the river has salt too! However, river contains only a really small amount of salt. Why? Because river water is always flowing. It flows into lakes, seas, and oceans, so the salt can't stay in one place for a long time.
But are all oceans equally salty? Not exactly. Some places are saltier than others. In hot and dry areas, more water evaporates, leaving more salt of the bottom. This makes the water saltier. In places with a lot of rain or melting ice, extra freshwater mixes with the ocean, so the salt become less concentrated. For example, the oceans that near the equator are often saltier than oceans near the poles.
Conclusion
To sum up, why is the ocean salty? Salt comes from rocks on land, and rivers carry it to the ocean over a long time. The sun evaporates the water, but leave the salt of the bottom, so the salt slowly builds up. So, next time you visit the beach, remember: The salty ocean is the result of millions of years of rain, rivers, and sunshine working together!
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