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Why is the Ocean Salty ?
"Why is the ocean salty?" - Actually a very good question.. All water contains a certain amount of salt. "All water, even rain water, contains some salt, but the water in the oceans contains vast amounts of salt, mostly sodium and chloride ions. It has been estimated that there are 50 million billion tons of salt in the ocean. While no one knows for sure, there are several theories about how Earth cooled from its original superheated origins over geological time. In the Earth's early stages, water vapor and other gases escaped from the molten core and as the Earth cooled, the water vapor began to condense and fall as rain. The rain over centuries gradually filled the large basins over the surface of the Earth, forming the oceans. Most of the salt derived from gradual processes such as the breaking up of the cooled igneous rocks of the Earth's crust by weathering and erosion, wearing down of mountains, and the dissolving actions of rivers and streams which transported minerals, including sodium and chloride, to the sea." To read the full report, it's best to have a look at the Environmental Literacy Council website, where the above excerpt was taken from. You didn't think we had researched all this ourselves did you...far too lazy for that.
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