How come the ocean never freezes??

Question

places near the ocean can be the COLDEST!!

Answer 1

The high calcium content plus constant movement.

Answer 2

Basically, it's just that salt water takes longer to freeze, and because the warm water circulates and reaches long distances, making the whole ocean warmer.

Answer 3

Salt.

Damned good thing.  We'd be up to our tuckus with dead fish.

Answer 4

Some of the surface of the ocean does freeze way way up north, but most of it doesn't because the ocean is constantly moving.

Answer 5

Hi,

Actually the ocean does freeze in some very cold areas, but only at the very surface as you may have notcied.  And also,  places nearer to the ocean are actually warmer than places inland on average! This is because the ocean water holds more heat than, say, the frozen street in a city.

Ocean water is harder to freeze than regular water because the salt in the water lowers it's freezing point considerably.

Answer 6

Salt and it's just too darned big. Freezing a lake is easier than an ocean.

Answer 7

It never freezes because ice is lighter than water.

  The temperature on the ocean floor is always 4 degrees cent.

  If the temperature of the earth got cold enough the ocean would freeze.

Answer 8

SALT

Answer 9

Salt.

Answer 10

Salt water will freeze, but at the freezing point is about 28.4°F (-2°C), .  Around the Antarctic and Arctic circle, it does freeze, but the majority does not because, the salt content will lower the temperature it takes to freeze, the current and constant moving of the water, and different temperatures of water mixing.

Answer 11

+1 on salt, it lowers the freezing point of the water so it doesnt freeze.

Answer 12

The amount of salt affects the freezing temperature and the constant movement also prevents it from freezing.  Also, the deeper it is, the more it takes to freeze.

Answer 13

It does freeze in the Arctic, and around Antarctica (not all the way through, though).  Otherwise it does not freeze mainly because the oceans are very large, and thus contain a lot of stored heat.  There would need to be an incredible amount of cold air for a very long time in order to remove the requisite amount of heat for freezing, even if the water temperatures are already quite cold.

Answer 14

The salt raises the freezing point of the water i think, and its always moving. Some places in the artic circle like ~40 inches of the ocean top freezes. The salt is pushed down and the top is a giant slab of frozen freshwater.

Answer 15

Oceans tend not to freeze because of salt content and the motion of the water.  Freezing does occur in the Arctic and Anarctic seas, but only to a certain depth.  This is why submarines can go under the polar caps.