Study Spot
Customized learning paths based on interests
Rivers discharge mineral-rich water to the oceans. Satellite view of La Plata River discharge to the Atlantic Ocean. One way minerals and salts are deposited into the oceans is from outflow from rivers, which drain the landscape, thus causing the oceans to be salty.
Ocean water has so many salts and minerals dissolved in it , that's why the ocean water is salty.
You may know that the oceans cover about 70 percentthe of Earth's surface, and that about 97 percent of all water on and in the Earth is saline—there's a lot of salty water on our planet. By some estimates, if the salt in the ocean could be removed and spread evenly over the Earth's land surface it would form a layer more than 500 feet (166 meters) thick, about the height of a 40-story office building (Source: NOAA). But, where did all this salt come from? If you get into folk stories and mythology you will see that almost every culture has a story explaining how the oceans became salty. The answer is really very simple. Salt in the ocean comes from rocks on land. Here's how it works...