Salty Sea

[TheBobster]

Why is the sea salty?

[bernardo]

The water gradually dissolves various minerals and stuff out of the rocks - much of which is salty.

[brachiopod]

Here's a pat answer to this old chestnut,

"The sea is salty because the rivers that flow into it wash salts* and other minerals out of the ground. The salts dissolve in the rivers and the rivers flow into the sea. As the Sun evaporates the water from the sea to make clouds, it leaves the salts and minerals behind, so the sea is saltier than rivers and lakes.

Jack (age 9) , Wellington New Zealand "

* in chemistry terms, a 'salt' is not neccesarily sodium chloride, (as in the stuff you put on your chips) but encompasses a variety of inorganic electrovalent compounds consisting of an ionically bonded cation (usually a metal) and a negatively charged ionic species (eg chloride , sulphate, nitrite etc.)  .