Why is the Ocean Water Salty

Each and every country has its own folk stories and mythology to explain why ocean water is salty or how they became salty. However, there is a scientific reason to this question. A very simple answer to this query would be "salt in the oceans of the world comes from the rocks on the land"

Let me clarify the above statement. The rainwater has contents of carbon dioxide, which make it acidic (carbonic acid). The rain that falls on the land erodes the rocks because of its chemical content. The chemical contents of rock dissolve in the water and it is carried along as ions.

The rainwater carrying the ions flows into the streams and the rivers and from there into the seas and the oceans. Also read how rivers are formed. The living marine organisms use up some of the chemical ions dissolved in the ocean. As the remaining chemicals cannot be consumed, their concentration levels increase in the ocean over the period of time.

The types of chemical salts that are commonly present in the waters of the ocean or sea are sodium and chloride. 90% of all dissolved ions are chloride and sodium and this is what makes sea or the ocean water salty.

The seawater contains a chemical salt in the form of sodium chloride (NaCl). There are many advantages of sea salt.

Scientists and geologists estimate if the salt in the oceans of the world could be separated from water and evenly spread on the surface of the earth, the thickness of the salt layer would be approximately 166 m thick and the height would be somewhere equal to 40-story building.