Why The Ocean Is Salty?

Frequently we come across a fact about our earth that mystifies us. We find no answer. One such fact is about the existence of salt in the oceans. What reaches the salt there? We do not know how the salt got into the ocean’ one thing we do know that salt is water-soluble. It passes into the ocean with rainwater. The salt of the earth is constantly getting dissolved and passing into the ocean.

We do not know whether this can account for the huge quantity of salt that is found in the ocean. If all the oceans are dried up, enough salt is obtained. This quantity will suffice to build a wall around the earth at the equator; the width of this wall will be 1:6 kilometers and may attain a height of about 290 kilometers. The other way round the bulk of rock salt obtained would be 15 times as much as the entire continent of Europe.

The salt that we use is produced from seawater or the water of salt lakes, salt springs, and from deposits of rock salt. The seawater is concentrated from 3 to 3.5 percent. The enclosed seas, such as the Mediterranean and the Red sea contain more salt than the open seas. The dead sea which is in an area of about 884 square kilometers contains about 12,500,000,000 tonnes of salt.

On average five liters of seawater contains about 125 grams of salt. The rock salt beds formed in the world were a result of the evaporation of seawater many million years ago. Normally 90% of seawater volume needs to evaporate in order to form rock salt. The thick beds of rock salt must have been what used to be enclosed seas. These evaporated faster than fresh water and thus rock salt was formed.

Most commercial salt is rock salt. Usually, wells are drilled down to the salt beds. Pure water is pumped down to dissolve water which is forced through another pipe up to the surface.