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The majority of the earth’s water is saline, with salt coming from carbon dioxide eroding rock and minerals being carried into the sea. Chloride and sodium make up over 90% of dissolved ions in the ocean, with salt also coming from hydrothermal vents and underwater volcanoes.
When you consider that about 70 percent of the earth’s surface is covered in water, and 97 percent of that water is saline, you quickly realize that our planet has a lot of salt water. Where does all that salt come from? Over time, carbon dioxide dissolved by rain, in the form of carbonic acid, erodes the rock and eventually carries salts and minerals into the sea. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that if all the salt in the oceans could be distributed evenly across the earth’s surface, it would form a 500-foot (166m) layer. That’s the height of a 40-story office building.
Keeping an “ion” in the ocean:
Chloride and sodium make up over 90% of all dissolved ions in the ocean. Some are used by organisms, but most accumulate over time, increasing overall salt concentration.
In one cubic mile of seawater, the weight of salt comes to about 120 million tons.
To a lesser extent, salt also finds its way into the oceans from hydrothermal vents and the eruption of underwater volcanoes.
