What Is Sea Water?
The water of
the sea or the ocean is known as seawater. The average salinity of seawater is
almost 3.5%. It means that if you have one kilogram of seawater, it has almost
35 grams of dissolved salts. Moreover, seawater is also denser than freshwater.
The density of the
freshwater is 1.0 kg/L. On the other hand, the density of seawater is 1.25
kg/L. Its reason is that seawater has dissolved salts and these dissolved salts
increase the density of the seawater. Due to enough concentration of the dissolved
salts in the seawater, the freezing point of seawater also decreases. That’s
why seawater decreases at -2 °C. On the other hand, freshwater freezes at 0 °C.
Now, a question comes to the minds of the people that ‘Why is the seawater
salty?’. Understanding the impacts behind the salinity of the seawater, we have
to understand the water cycle.
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What Is the Water Cycle?
The water
cycle provides us with an idea about the continuous movement of the water on
the surface of the earth. The amount of water on earth is constant. Anyhow,
water is present on the earth in different forms like freshwater, atmospheric
water and saline water etc. The forms of the water vary the basis on the climatic
variables. It means that water moves from one reservoir to another i.e from the
ocean to the atmosphere, from the atmosphere to the rivers and from rivers to
the ocean again. The physical appearance of the water changes by various processes
like evaporation, condensation and surface runoff etc. That’s why water is also
present in the liquid, gas and vapour forms.
Why Is The Sea Water Salty?
If you have
ever visited any sea and you have tasted the seawater, you would know that seawater
is salty. Moreover, you also know that freshwater in the form of rain, rivers
and ice cubes is not salty. Now, a question comes to your mind that ‘Why is the
seawater salty whereas other water doesn’t?’. There are two clues behind this
fact. First of all, we discuss the first clue. As we have discussed earlier
that due to the water cycle, water changes its forms. Let’s start with the
water that is present in the ocean. As the water in the oceans is present at a
wide scale. Therefore, water on the surface of the oceans easily evaporates and
goes into the atmosphere. In the atmosphere, this water condenses and it falls
on the earth in the form of rain and snowfall. During the summer, the snow at
the mountains change into the water and this water started to flow on the earth
in the form of rivers. When these rivers pass through rocks, they dissolve
minerals and this process is called weathering. These minerals along with the
water of the river flow towards oceans and these minerals add into the ocean. As
a result, seawater is salty.
Now, lots of
questions also come to your mind. First question is that ‘Why water of rivers
is not salty’. The answer to this question is that in the rivers, there is a low
concentration of the minerals, therefore, we can’t taste salt. The second
question is that ‘If water of rivers is added into the ocean, why seawater is
salty but the water of rivers is not salty?’. The answer to this question is
that rivers are adding their water into the oceans for millions of years and the
ocean is also evaporating the water from its surface for millions of years.
During the evaporation process, only water from the surface of the oceans is
evaporated and minerals don’t evaporate because these minerals are heavier than
water. Therefore, the amount of minerals is constantly increasing in the
oceans. That’s why the seawater is salty whereas the water of the rivers is not
salty.
Now, we
discuss the second clue. The second clue is that seawater is salty due to the
presence of the salt lakes like the Great Salt Lake and the Dead Sea. These
lakes are known as 10 times saltier than the seawater. Now, a question also
comes to the minds of the people that ‘Why these lakes are saltier whereas
other lakes don’t?’. The answer to this question is that a lake is known as the
temporary storage area for the water. It means some rivers and streams bring
water to these lakes and other rivers carry the water out of these lakes. It
means that in lake water enters into the one end and it flows towards another
end. In the case of the Great Salt Lake and the Dead Sea, there is no outlet
for the water. It means that in these lakes, water can only enter but it can’t
come out to another end. Therefore, the only way to escape water from these
lakes is the evaporation. When seawater evaporates into the atmosphere, it leaves
behind the minerals. These minerals have been adding into these lakes for
millions of years. That’s why these lakes are saltier than the other lakes. The
same phenomenon is happening in the case of seawater.
Why Does The Ocean Appears Blue?
While discussing
the salty seawater, another question comes to our minds that ‘Why does the
ocean appears blue whereas pure water in the glass is colourless?’. Most of the
people think that it is due to the presence of the salt in the ocean. It is a
wrong belief because the phenomenon of the blue colour of the ocean is similar
to the phenomenon of the blue colour of the sky. To know the basic phenomenon
behind the blue colour of the sky, you can read our post ‘Why
the colour of the sky is blue?’. Anyhow, it is due to the scattering of the
sun’s light from the surface of the ocean. The sun’s light is white and it
consists of seven colours of different wavelengths. When this light falls on
the surface of the ocean, water observes red, orange and yellow lights whereas
it reflects the blue colour of the light. That’s why the ocean appears blue.
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