🧂 SALTWATER: WHY IS THE SEA SALTY?
PAGE 1 OF 5, RIVERS DELIVER THE INGREDIENTS
WASH
RAIN AND RIVERS SCRAPE THE CONTINENTS
Every drop of rain is slightly acidic, it nibbles volcanic rock and limestone, freeing sodium, chloride, calcium, sulphate and more into solution. Streams merge into rivers that roar to the coast carrying a dissolved mineral cargo. That cargo is dilute compared with the sea, but the ocean has been collecting it for billions of years while continents slowly recycle.
⚡ DID YOU KNOW?
Hydrothermal vents and underwater volcanoes also swap chemicals with seawater, geology and water chemistry stay partners.
IONS!
RAIN
🌧️ Weak carbonic acid in droplets
🪨 Dissolves minerals grain by grain
🪨 Dissolves minerals grain by grain
DELTA
🌊 Brown plume meets blue ocean
📦 Mud + ions ride the current
📦 Mud + ions ride the current