Why are the oceans salty?
534720
As water flows in rivers, it picks up small amounts of mineral salts from the rocks and soil of the river beds. This very-slightly salty water flows into the oceans and seas. The water in the oceans only leaves by evaporating (and the freezing of polar ice), but the salt remains dissolved in the ocean - it does not evaporate. So the remaining water gets saltier and saltier as time passes. \n\nSALINITY\nSea salts Parts per Thousand \nchloride 19.3 o/oo \nsodium 10.7 o/oo \nsulfate 2.7 o/oo \nmagnesium 1.3 o/oo \ncalcium 0.4 o/oo \npotassium 0.4 o/oo \nbicarbonate 0.15 o/oo \nbromide 0.07 o/oo \nother 0.06 o/oo \nTotal Salinity 35.08 o/oo \nThe salinity (salt content) of ocean water varies. The oceans and seas contain roughly 5 x 10 16 tons of salts. One cubic foot of average sea water contains 2.2 pounds of salt. \n\nThe oceans are about 3.5% salt (by weight). Salinity is generally reported in terms of parts per thousand (abbreviated o/oo), the number of pounds of salt per 1,000 pounds of water; the average ocean salinity is 35 o/oo. \n\nThe saltiest water is in the Red Sea and in the Persian Gulf, which have a salinity of about 40 o/oo (due to very high evaporation rates and low fresh water influx). The least salty seas are in the polar regions, where both melting polar ice and a lot of rain dilute the salinity.
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Dear Friend,\n\nSalt 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.\n\nThe right amount of salt is a very important part of our diet. In ancient times, salt was worth its weight in gold. People used it to flavor and preserve their food. Without salt, the food would spoil. For this reason, salt became a symbol of purity. Some sacrifices in the Old Testament included salt (Leviticus 2:13; Ezekiel 43:24). Jesus called faithful people "the salt of the earth," and the apostle Paul said that our speech should be "seasoned with salt" (Colossians 4:6).
496521
The concentration of salt in seawater varies with temperature.  Because the Arctic and Antarctic oceans are colder than the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, the salt is less soluble.  By the same principle, seawater near the floor of the ocean would be less salty because it's cold down there.  Throw in a few baby volcanoes, the Atlantic rift and a few dozen fumaroles, etc...  Then, you would have to know how many liters of water are in the oceans and that quantity is constantly changing.  Now, are you talking about common NaCL?  Or do you want to include all the sulfates, carbonates, phosphates, etc... which are all in the ocean?  Thanks for the easy 2 points!
473784
Good question!\nIt has to do with osmosis. When salt is placed on a land snail, water will move out of the snail in an attempt to balance the concentration of salt inside and outside of the body. It is the same thing as when you take a swim, and water diffuses out of your fingertips and causes them to shrivel. Just as that happens, the snail will shrivel up. However, marine snails have a different concentration of salt inside their bodies. But remember- salts in the ocean are only around 775 parts per MILLION- that's not very concentrated! So therefore, marine snails can have higher salt concentration inside their bodies to keep water from diffusing out of them and prevent them from shriveling up. If you were to place regular table salt on a marine snail (and please, please, please, don't do this_), they would probably shrivel up just like land snails do.\nHope this helped!
781134
since water likes to travel from an area of higher concentration to lower concentration, the cells of a plant living in mostly salt will have very little water.  the cell of this plant will appear more thin and streamlined as they are not puffed up by the additional water.
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Salinity is measures as the amount of salt content in water in ppt (parts per thousand).\nThe amount of salinity depends on the source of water that feeds water into the sea. At the sea bed there is sand, rocks and sediments which contribute to the salt content in the sea. If there are many fresh water rivers opening into the sea with continuous supply the salinity will be low. Also if there is continuous supply of melting snow (this happens near the poles), content of salt will be low. \nHowever, if there is not much of fresh water flowing into the sea, the salinity will be high. Also, if the rate of evaporation is high, salinity will be high (this happens in tropical regions) because water evaporates leaving behind salts.\n\nThe Dead Sea has the highest salinity in the world. In fact the density of water is so high due to salt content that humans can actually float on the water. This is because Dead Sea is completely land-locked and has no source to supply fresh water.
296283
Oceans and seas are salt water,but the most salt water on earth could be found in the dead sea in Jordan in the Middle East.
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Salt comes from  dissolved rock. Rivers carry that salt from the land to the ocean. It's that simple.
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Scientific theories behind the origins of sea salt started with Sir Edmond Halley in 1715, who proposed that salt and other minerals were carried into the sea by rivers, having been leached out of the ground by rainfall runoff. Upon reaching the ocean, these salts would be retained and concentrated as the process of evaporation (see Hydrologic cycle) removed the water. Halley noted that of the small number of lakes in the world without ocean outlets (such as the Dead Sea and the Caspian Sea, see endorheic basin), most have high salt content. Halley termed this process "continental weathering".
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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.
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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.
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Salt water can conduct electricity because there are ions in it. Na+ and Cl- from the salt.\nSee http://www.scienceaid.co.uk/salt.html for more
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A contrast of saltiness in water (halocline) can form in the ocean, because there is a tendency for less dense fresher water to float on top of denser saltier water. This happens for example when a river (fresh water) discharges into the ocean.\nThermocline forms when water at the surface of an ocean or lake is heated up, while the water below stays cool
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If I remember right, the crystalline structure of the salt breaks down, and the Na and Cl ions move freely in the water, dissolving into the water.\nSince the salt breaks down into free ions, that explains why salt water is such a good electrical conductor.
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because the salt u use in the kitchen does not contain all the particals in the sea water like sodium sulphate magnesium sulphate etc because they are removed in the process  of making the salt and some times the salt it cut down from deep earth and they are also cleaned by removing the toxic particles and iodised which may alter the sea water salt from earth solt altho the main component of salt is Na Cl it has other particals such as iodine and k+ irons Fe ect...
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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
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The salinity of specific regions of the oceans depends on the ratio of influx of sweet water and evaporation (or in cold regions, formation of ice, which also increases the salinity of the remaining water) and on the vertical and horizontal currents. The northern Atlantic is the most saline oceanic region, if I recall correctly - probably because of much evaporation in the subtropic zone and then the gulf stream carrying the saline water north.\n\nThe dissolved salts are mainly:\n\ncations: Na+, with K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ as important additional components\n\nanions: HCO3-, Cl- as main components, SO4(2-) a distant third.\n\nTo get the salts, simply combine to neutral compounds.