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Thermohaline forcing refers to density-gradient driven motions, whereby density is determined by the temperature (‘thermo’) and salt concentration (‘haline’) of the water. Heat and freshwater fluxes at the ocean's surface play therefore a key role in forming ocean currents. Those currents exert a major effect on regional and global climate.
Most water in Earth's atmosphere and crust comes from saline seawater, while fresh water accounts for nearly 1% of the total. The vast bulk of the water on Earth is saline or salt water, with an average salinity of 35‰ (or 3.5%, roughly equivalent to 34 grams of salts in 1 kg of seawater), though this varies slightly according to the amount of runoff received from surrounding land.
Fresh water can easily become polluted by human activities or due to naturally occurring processes, such as erosion. Fresh water makes up less than 3% of the world's water resources, and just 1% of that is readily available. About 70% of the world's freshwater reserves are frozen in Antarctica. Just 3% of it is extracted for human consumption ...
All living species on Earth need water to survive, including our aquatic friends. Fish do consume water, but not necessarily like humans.
Seawater, or sea water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has approximately 35 grams (1.2 oz) of dissolved salts (predominantly sodium ( Na +
Of this fresh water, 68.9% is in the form of ice and permanent snow cover in the Arctic, the Antarctic and mountain glaciers; 30.8% is in the form of fresh groundwater; and only 0.3% of the fresh water on Earth is in easily accessible lakes, reservoirs and river systems. [96]
Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, [1] [2] is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. The word comes from the Middle Dutch root brak.
Water is the chemical substance with chemical formula H 2 O; one molecule of water has two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to a single oxygen atom. [26] Water is a tasteless, odorless liquid at ambient temperature and pressure. Liquid water has weak absorption bands at wavelengths of around 750 nm which cause it to appear to have a blue color. [4]