Each litre of water in the sea contains 35 grams of salt. The sea water predominantly contains sodium chloride (NaCl) which we commonly know as table salt.
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My dear fellow steemians, have you ever wondered why the sea water is so salty while other forms of terrestrial water are not, not even the rain water? Well, today I'd like to discuss about why sea water has so much salt that no humans can drink it.
Sea water is enriched with all sorts of ions. Each litre of water in the sea contains 35 grams of salt. The sea water predominantly contains sodium chloride (NaCl) which we commonly know as table salt. However, this isn't it's sole composition. There are admixture of magnesium, sulfate, calcium, and potassium salts as well.
In the year 1715, Sir Edmond Halley proposed that salt in the ocean were deposited by rivers by a process called weathering of continents As the water flows, the water percolates through rocks. Due do this, different minerals get dissolved in the water and upon reaching the ocean, these salts would be retained and concentrated as the process of evaporation removed the water. The dissolved salts carried by all the world’s rivers would equal the salt in the ocean in about 200 to 300 million years. However, this theory seems partly correct.
Another reason why the sea water is salty is because of what we call hydrothermal vents. They are fissures in a planet's surface which regulate the circulation of minerals and other chemicals. Some sea water has seep into these vents, where the temperature is higher. Due to the heat, the water dissolves with some minerals and seeps back into the ocean thus adding to the salinity of sea water. In the same way some minerals can also be removed from sea.
Not only the hydrothermal vents, but also the submarine volcanoes may also help water to dissolve with some additional minerals and add salinity of sea water.
In past 100 years, the sea water concentration hasn't changed drastically. As there is circulation of water and minerals in the ocean as shown in the picture above, the salt concentration is still maintained as 35g/ltr.
That's all for today.
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