Friday, October 3, 2008

Ocean Salt Variations


Trying to sift through all the scientific journals on ocean salinity variation proved to be a quite lengthy process. However I have discovered a few things. Salinity variations in our oceans depends on inputs and outputs. The most common factor for variation is evaporation and precipitation.Simply put,if there is more precipitation (input) than evaporation (output) then salinity decreases, and vise versa.
Large rivers and runoff can also play an important role in salinity variations. Large rivers, like the Amazon, can actually make the ocean have little to no salt content for a few kilometers. Ice also plays a role in the equation. Icebergs, which lack any salt will melt and dilute thereby decreasing the salts in the ocean and the freezing of ocean water will actually increase salt salinity, on a more local scale I presume.
As for which ocean has more salt, the map for this blog is kinda cool, which I got from here.

The way this map works is the the purple areas are least salty, high salinity is green and medium salinity is blue.

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