
Seawater | Composition, Properties, Distribution, & Facts | Britannica
Seawater is a complex mixture of 96.5 percent water, 2.5 percent salts, and smaller amounts of other substances, including dissolved inorganic and organic materials, particulates, and a few atmospheric gases.
Seawater - Salinity, Minerals, Oceans | Britannica
2024年12月30日 · Seawater - Salinity, Minerals, Oceans: The principal components of seawater are listed in the table. In contrast to the behaviour of most oceanic substances, the concentrations of the principal inorganic constituents of the oceans are remarkably constant.
Atlantic Ocean - Seawater Minerals, Salts, Nutrients | Britannica
2025年1月18日 · Atlantic Ocean - Seawater Minerals, Salts, Nutrients: Sea salt (sodium chloride and other salts) has been obtained (mostly by solar evaporation) from the waters of the Atlantic and its marginal seas for millennia.
Chemical element - Salinity, Minerals, Oceans | Britannica
2025年1月14日 · Some elements—chlorine, bromine, boron, and sulfur—are present in seawater in amounts far in excess of those that can have been derived by erosion. The source of these “superabundant” elements has probably been volcanism and related magmatic activity.
Seawater - Salinity, Composition, Oceans | Britannica
2024年12月30日 · Seawater - Salinity, Composition, Oceans: The oceans probably achieved their modern characteristics 2 to 1.5 billion years ago. The chemical and mineralogical compositions and the relative proportions of sedimentary rocks of this age differ little from their Paleozoic-era counterparts (those dating from about 541.0 to 251.9 million years ago).
Seawater - Salinity, Temperature, Chemistry | Britannica
2024年12月30日 · The primary minerals of igneous rocks are all mildly basic compounds. When they react in excess with acids such as hydrochloric acid and carbon dioxide, they produce neutral or mildly alkaline solutions plus a set of altered aluminosilicate and carbonate reaction products.
Sedimentary rock - Evaporites, Deposits, Minerals | Britannica
2025年2月25日 · Sedimentary rock - Evaporites, Deposits, Minerals: Evaporites are layered crystalline sedimentary rocks that form from brines generated in areas where the amount of water lost by evaporation exceeds the total amount of water …
Seawater - Salinity, Distribution, Oceans | Britannica
2024年12月30日 · At depth in the oceans, salinity may be altered as seawater percolates into fissures associated with deep-ocean ridges and crustal rifts involving volcanism. This water then returns to the ocean as superheated water carrying dissolved salts from the magmatic material within the crust.
Why is seawater so salty? - Encyclopedia Britannica
As it flows over various types of soil and rocks, the river water scoops up salts and other minerals. Each year the rivers carry up to three billion tons of salt into the sea. The salt may not be noticeable in the rivers, but in the sea it becomes concentrated.
How calcium and carbonate helps in shell formation | Britannica
Learn how calcium and carbonate in sea water serve as the raw materials in seashell construction. The concentration of those chemicals depends in part on water depth and the balance of dissolved gases in the water column.