Why the sea is salty water: two glances at one question

Why is the sea salty in the sea ? This question was asked each of us at least once in life (or, more precisely, in childhood).

"Water grinds the stone". This proverb is very truthful. All over the world, there is no solvent stronger than water. It is able to dilute salts and acids, easily cope with rocks and huge rocks.

Rain streams leach out the hardest rocks, wash them into the water. Salt, accumulating in the water, makes it bitter-salty.

But why do the rivers remain insipid?

Scientists call several reasons. Let's consider the basic theories, which experts offer today, studying seawater.

Why is the sea salty in the sea? The first theory.

Sooner or later, all impurities entering the water end up in the seas and oceans. Why is the sea salty in the sea? Because the rivers are also salty. However, the salt in them is 70% less than in the ocean. Devices register it, but the taste of river water seems fresh. Running water from the rivers enters the ocean, the salt there accumulates. The process is more than two billion years. This time is more than enough to "salivate" a huge amount of water. The water gradually evaporates, it rains, again returns to the ocean. Salts and other elements remain unchanged: they do not evaporate, but only accumulate.

A good confirmation of this theory is the lake, which has no runoff: they are also saline.

For example, the water of the Dead Sea (essentially a huge lake without a lake) contains so much salt that it pushes any body to the surface. This lake is the lowest point of the planet, which, moreover, is in a hot place. Because of the climate and fumes, scientists believe, the salinity of the Dead Sea and reached almost 40%. It does not contain fish or plants. Even outwardly, water resembles an oily substance. And at the bottom of the lake instead of the usual silt - salt.

Such a theory, explaining why the water in the sea is salty, has one significant drawback. It does not take into account that in the river water there are mainly salts of carbonic acid, and in marine - sodium chloride (common salt).

Why is the sea salty in the sea? The second theory.

According to her, initially the water in the ocean was not salty, but acidic. Why? Because during the birth of the Earth the atmosphere was literally boiling. Volcanoes "dumped" into it a lot of chemical elements, acid rain was spilled. All this settled on the bottom of the newborn oceans, making it acidic. Gradually, the rivers carried to the ocean washed up rocks that reacted with acid. As a result, the salt was released, which made the water salty. Carbonates were also allocated, but they were very actively used and used by marine animals, which with their help build shells, skeletons, shells.

Long ago the process stabilized, but the water in the seas remained salty. This remains today.

Both theories take place, but none of them exactly explains why there are different waters in the sea and rivers. In some places, these hypotheses complement each other, and in places are refuted.

Perhaps, very soon a new theory will appear, which will give an exhaustive answer to the question of interest to all people of the Earth.