HELP!! i need to know how...

Question

How did salt get into the ocean??

Like its salt water...how'd it get there???

please no dumb answers...i rele need to know..

Answer 1

salt occurs naturally in the sea because of the seaweed that naturally excrets salts, and i think that some marine animals produce salt also.

Answer 2

mineral salt on land. Sea salt in the ocean. Part of the planet. Same as gold, sliver, iron, etc.

Answer 3

Sea water has been defined as a weak solution of almost everything. Ocean water is indeed a complex solution of mineral salts and of decayed biologic matter that results from the teeming life in the seas. Most of the ocean's salts were derived from gradual processes such the breaking up of the cooled igneous rocks of the Earth's crust by weathering and erosion, the wearing down of mountains, and the dissolving action of rains and streams which transported their mineral washings to the sea. Some of the ocean's salts have been dissolved from rocks and sediments below its floor. Other sources of salts include the solid and gaseous materials that escaped from the Earth's crust through volcanic vents or that originated in the atmosphere.

In the beginning the primeval seas must have been only slightly salty. But ever since the first rains descended upon the young Earth hundreds of millions of years ago and ran over the land breaking up rocks and transporting their minerals to the seas, the ocean has become saltier. It is estimated that the rivers and streams flowing from the United States alone discharge 225 million tons of dissolved solids and 513 million tons of suspended sediment annually to the sea. Recent calculations show yields of dissolved solids from other land masses that range from about 6 tons per square mile for Australia to about 120 tons per square mile for Europe. Throughout the world, rivers carry an estimated 4 billion tons of dissolved salts to the ocean annually. About the same tonnage of salt from the ocean water probably is deposited as sediment on the ocean bottom, and thus, yearly gains may offset yearly losses. In other words, the oceans today probably have a balanced salt input and outgo.

Past accumulations of dissolved and suspended solids in the sea do not explain completely why the ocean is salty. Salts become concentrated in the sea because the Sun's heat distills or vaporizes almost pure water from the surface of the sea and leaves the salts behind. This process is part of the continual exchange of water between the Earth and the atmosphere that is called the hydrologic cycle. Water vapor rises from the ocean surface and is carried landward by the winds. When the vapor collides with a colder mass of air, it condenses (changes from a gas to a liquid) and falls to Earth as rain. The rain runs off into streams which in turn transport water to the ocean. Evaporation from both the land and the ocean again causes water to return to the atmosphere as vapor and the cycle starts anew. The ocean, then, is not fresh like river water because of the huge accumulation of salts by evaporation and the contribution of raw salts from the land. In fact, since the first rainfall, the seas have become saltier.

Answer 4

Unlike inland lakes, which have an outlet and is constantly exchanging water, the oceans only outlet is through evaporation, so that any mineral that is taken into the ocean stays there.

There are a few inland lakes in the world that do not have an out let except through evaporation also and these also have heavy concentrations of salt.

Answer 5

The water is naturally like that 'cause of mineral, like sand, rock, and other things that desolve and become salty. Mainly from rivers too 'cause river are more near rocks and mineral. Hope I helped and yes that is really how it started

Answer 6

It's just there, you need to know why because?

Answer 7

http://www.palomar.edu/oceanography/salt...

Answer 8

its just natural, salt forms underground, it gets into the ocean!

help please!

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 9

I think you can get your answer by visiting the following website.

http://www.palomar.edu/oceanography/salt...

You also can find how the salt get into the ocean.

Where are the saltiest oceans on earth.

The total estimated salt in tons in all oceans.

The cycles of how salt is formed and where it originated.

Answer 10

i know this one i've only heard it like 10 times a month:

the salt comes from the rocks, as erosion plays a part in this:

the rocks have some limestone in it, limestone: a material that is like a salt, was washed away along with the rocks eventually made the sea salty, which took place ever since the world started having land and sea