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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 +
About 3.5% of the weight of seawater comes from dissolved salts. But just how did the salt get in there? Why is the ocean salty? Lets dive in.
Sea water, in theory, could be used to help a fire. But, its salty components can do more harm than good, which is why firefighters typically avoid using it unless absolutely necessary.
Brine rejection is a process that occurs when salty water freezes. The salts do not fit in the crystal structure of water ice, so the salt is expelled. Since the oceans are salty, this process is important in nature. Salt rejected by the forming sea ice drains into the surrounding seawater, creating saltier, denser brine.
The modern thermohaline circulation is thus more controlled by density contrasts due to thermal differences, whereas during the LGM the oceans were more than twice as sensitive to differences in salinity rather than temperature. In this way, the thermohaline circulation can be considered to have been less "thermo" and more "haline".
Deep ocean water (DOW) is the name for cold, salty water found in the deep sea, starting at 200 m (660 ft) below the surface of Earth's oceans. Ocean water differs in temperature and salinity. Warm surface water is generally saltier than the cooler deep or polar waters; [1] in polar regions, the upper layers of ocean water are cold and fresh. [2]
The oxygen content in bottom water is high due to ocean circulation. In the Antarctic, salty and cold surface water sinks to lower depths due to its high density. As the surface water sinks, it carries oxygen from the surface with it and will spend an enormous amount of time circulating across the seafloor of ocean basins.
The temperature of the deep ocean drops gradually with depth. As saline water does not freeze until it reaches −2.3 °C (27.9 °F) (colder as depth and pressure increase) the temperature well below the surface is usually not far from zero degrees. [2] The thermocline varies in depth.