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OCEAN SALINITY

OCEAN SALINITY. OCEAN SALINITY. by Robert Perry. DISCLAIMER: The images, maps and diagrams in this presentation were taken from the public domain on the world wide web. Any privately owned images not available for this non- commercial, educational project will gladly be removed.

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OCEAN SALINITY

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  1. OCEAN SALINITY OCEAN SALINITY by Robert Perry

  2. DISCLAIMER: The images, maps and diagrams in this presentation were taken from the public domain on the world wide web. Any privately owned images not available for this non- commercial, educational project will gladly be removed. E-mail: zalophus@ucla.edu

  3. SALINITY The amount of salts dissolved in the ocean water.

  4. Why is the ocean salty ?

  5. Why is the ocean salty? The ocean is salty because of the weathering of rocks in the early stages of the formation of the oceans and continents. The ocean probably is continuing to become saltier very slowly (on geologic time scales) as rivers bring dissolved material to the sea. Even though the concentrations of dissolved salts in "fresh" river water is tiny, evaporation from the ocean surface (which is how water gets back to the rivers) removes only pure water so whatever salt enters from rivers remains in the sea and slowly builds up. Sea water is 35o/oo or 3.5% salt by weight, which means the total quantity of dissolved salt, if dried, would form a layer 45m thick over the entire earth, or 153m thick over the present land area.

  6. The salt in sea water is composed of a variety of components, primarily sodium chloride (table salt), magnesium chloride, magnesium sulfate and calcium carbonate, along with many trace elements. One of the remarkable aspects of ocean salinity is how constant the relative ratios of these constituents are in sea water, no matter where in the oceans one looks. This suggests that the oceans are "well-mixed" on the time scale of salt input. Total salinity, however, varies from about 3.3% to 3.8% in open-ocean surface waters, depending on the rainfall, evaporation, and river runoff in different regions. Salinity in bays or near the mouths of rivers is less, for example the salinity of Puget Sound near Seattle is about 2.9-3.2%. Deep-ocean salinity is much less variable.

  7. The origin of ocean salts.

  8. NaCl Na = sodium Cl = chlorine Modified “Chemistry NaCl,”courtesy of the artist Craig A. Finseth, http://www.finseth.com/~fin

  9. The polarity of the water molecule and its relationship with the sodium and chlorine ions.

  10. Sea salts being extracted by evaporation.

  11. SALINITY MEASUREMENTS: Oceanographers report salinity (total salt content) and the concentrations of individual chemical constituents in sea water -- chloride, sodium, or magnesium for example -- in parts per thousand, for which the symbol o/oo (or ppt) is used. That is, a salinity of 35 o/oo means 35 pounds of salt per 1,000 pounds of sea water. Similarly, a sodium concentration of 10 o/oo means 10 pounds of sodium per 1,000 pounds of water.

  12. Here’s an easy way to measure the salinity of a water sample… THERMOMETER HYDROMETER

  13. John Jones 6 Sept. 21, 2000 9:10 am 22.3 0.0 310 green 2 90 % 20.0 2 4 5 7 SST and DENSITY determine theSALINITY

  14. LET’S FIND SALINITY: If our SST was 20.0OC and our density was 1.0245 g/cm3.

  15. Here’s where the lines intersect. The salinity is: 34.5 o/oo

  16. John Jones 6 Sept. 21, 2000 9:10 am 22.3 0.0 310 green 2 90 % 20.0 2 4 5 34.5 7 The amount of dissolved salts in the ocean is controlled by temp- erature, which increases evaporation and causes the salinity to increase. Also, during the winter rainy season, large volumes of fresh water (especially from the Pacific Northwest region) can dilute the salt content and lower salinity values. SALINITY

  17. A rosette or cluster of water sampling bottles is ready to be lowered into the sea. This is one way ocean salinities are determined at different depths below the surface.

  18. Surface salinity of the western Pacific.

  19. Most ocean salinities are between 34.6 and 34.7 ppt.

  20. d

  21. Regions of higher precipitation Regions of higher precipitation Regions of higher precipitation Regions of higher evaporation Regions of higher evaporation The red line shows surface salinity vs. latitude. The dashed line shows evaporation minus precipitation. (Areas above zero are dry and those below zero are wet). Note the similarity in the lines.

  22. Higher evaporation than precipitation Higher evaporation than precipitation Antarctic Bottom Water North Atlantic Deep Water Atlantic Ocean Salinity Cross Section

  23. T H E E N D

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