How much salt is there in the ocean?
In the previous step Where does the salt come from? Will Homoky explained that rivers contain only a tiny fraction of salt compared to the waters of the ocean.
Before we go on to investigate what else accounts for the difference, let’s take some time to think about:
- How much salt is there in one cubic metre of seawater?
- How much salt is there in the entire ocean?
- If all the water in the ocean evaporated, how deep would the layer of salt left on the seafloor be?
Skip to the next step to see the answers to these questions – if you want to do the calculations yourself read on…
Your task
Download SALT CALCULATIONS AND ANSWERS at the bottom of this page. Do not scroll down too far if you are attempting the problems yourself and do not want to see the answers. You do not need to post your answers in the comments below – we will discuss them in the next step.
You can also look at the sheet, without attempting the calculations, if you just want to see how it is done.
The activity in the next step is about finding meaningful connections to the big numbers involved in these calculations; the results can be so huge that they seem very abstract.
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