The salty nature of ocean water is the result of interactions among
various environmental processes constantly adding and removing "ingredients
that make up different types of salts. The diagram below illustrates how
the diagram shows that magnesium is added to ocean water by rivers and is
these processes tend to keep the salt components in balance. For example,
removed by ocean water reacting with the oceanic crust. Interactions such as
these keep the overall percentage of salts in ocean water at about 3.5 percent.
Volcanic eruptions add:
Chloride
Sulfate
Magnesium
Sulfate
Continental
Crust
Ocean water reacts with
hot oceanic crust.
Removes:
Adds:
• Calcium
• Potassium
River
Organisms remove:
• Calcium
Nitrate
Silica
Rivers add:
Calcium
Carbonate
Magnesium
Silica
Sodium
Mantle
Continental
Crust
below
Oceanic
Crust
Salts deposited
in basins remove
Calcium
Potassium
• Sodium
