Why is the sea salty?
simply saying, main source of salts is dissolved salts of salty rocks in the rivers’ water you may say that the sea water has much salts than rivers water, the answer is that due to evaporation of sea water its concentration become higher than rivers so concentration of salt of the sea water is a function of the amount of entering fresh water of rivers (fresh water means the water containing less salt) and the amount of evaporation of the water
When it rains, the rain water washes over rocks etc and erodes very small particles of it (salt crystals) which are then carried along the waterways to the sea. The water from the sea evaporates as per the natural cycle of water and forms clouds and then rain again and the process starts over. When the water evaporates, it leaves the salt behind as the temperature required for water to evaporate isn’t as high as the temperature needed to turn a salt into a gas. The salt is therefore left behind making the sea salty. The reason why the sea doesn’t become super salty is because of the influx of fresh water that is always flowing into it and the salt crystals sinking to the bottom of the ocean and becoming part of new rocks. There are stretches of open water that are highly concentrated with salt crystals because the water is evaporating and not being replenished with any fresh water.
As the rains fall and water flows over the land, the water dissolves salt out of the rocks, washes the salt into streams, then rivers, and finally carries the salt to the sea. The salt stays in the sea because no water flows out of the sea just as no water flows out of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. When seawater evaporates to form clouds, almost all of the salt stays behind.
The seas have been fed by rivers for a few million years. The rivers run through and over land/rocks containing all manner of minerals. The salts dissolve in the river water and are transported to the sea, where they remain. When water evaporates from rivers, lakes and seas, the salt is left behind. There is precipitation = more rivers bringing more salts. Sea gets saltier day by day.
The seawater is salty because it has salt (sodium chloride) in it. Most of the salt comes from rocks on land. Rain washes the salt into rivers, which carry it to the sea. Most of the Earths water is salty. Only a tiny part is fresh water that we can drink. Seawater is 96.5% pure water. Salt makes up 2.9% in the form of sodium (1%) and chlorine (1.9%). The remaining 0.6% of seawater consists of various other elements.
