What is the salinity of the Atlantic Ocean?

It is worth starting with the interpretation of such a concept as the “world ocean” - this is the water surface of the whole Earth, surrounded by land (continents, islands, etc.). In Russia and in a number of European countries it is divided into four parts (the ocean): Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic.

Many hundreds of millions of years ago, North and South America, Africa, Antarctica and Europe - it was a continuous land mass. The last few million years were marked by such an event as the opening of the ocean basin, after which the land began to divide into continents (this trend is still relevant today).

The Atlantic Ocean had various names: the Atlantic, “the sea beyond the Heracles pillars”, the Western Ocean, the Sea of ​​Darkness. At the beginning of the XVI century. the cartographer M. Waldzemüller called this ocean the Atlantic.

It is recognized as the second largest ocean of the Earth after the Pacific. The ocean in question is located between Africa and Europe (in the east), Iceland and Greenland (in the north), South America and North (in the west), Antarctica and South America (in the south).

It has a strongly broken coastline with a pronounced division into separate regional water areas: bays and seas.

Salinity of the atlantic ocean

It is recognized as the saltiest ocean. The salinity of the Atlantic Ocean in ppm, according to official figures, is 35.4 ‰. Its greatest significance is observed in the Sargasso Sea. This is due to strong evaporation and a considerable distance from the river flow. The salinity of the Atlantic Ocean in some areas (at the bottom of the Red Sea) reached a value of 270 ‰ (almost saturated solution). A sharp desalination of ocean water was noted in the estuarine areas (for example, at the mouth of the La Plata river - about 18-19 ‰).

The salinity distribution in the ocean is not always zonal. It depends on the following reasons:

• evaporation
• amount and mode of precipitation;
• water inflow with currents from other latitudes;
• volume of fresh water delivered by rivers.
  

Where is the highest salinity concentration in the ocean under consideration?

It falls mainly on tropical latitudes (37.9 ‰). The coordinates of the area are 20-25 ° S. w. (South Atlantic), 20-30 ° C. w. (North Atlantic). In these places, predominantly trade wind circulation, rather little precipitation, evaporation with a layer of 3 m, fresh water practically does not enter here.

Slightly more salinity can be traced in the Northern Hemisphere (in places of temperate latitudes). All the waters of the current (North Atlantic) flow there.

Salinity of the Atlantic Ocean: Equatorial Latitudes

She reaches a level of 35 ‰. The salinity of the waters (Atlantic Ocean) here changes as it deepens. The indicated level was recorded at a depth of about 100-200 m. This is due to the surface flow of Lomonosov. It is known that the salinity of the surface layer in some cases is not identical to the salinity at depth. The salinity index indicated earlier decreases sharply in a collision with the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current, the result of which is 31-32 ‰.

The specifics of the Atlantic Ocean

These are the so-called submarine springs - underground fresh water. One has long been well known to sailors. This source is located east of the peninsula called Florida (where seafarers replenish fresh water supplies). It is a sandy stretch up to 90 m in the salty Atlantic Ocean. Fresh water beats at a depth of forty meters, then tends to the surface. This is a kind of typical phenomenon - unloading of a source in karst development areas or within tectonic disturbances. In a situation where the pressure of groundwater significantly exceeds the pressure of a column of sea salt water, unloading will begin immediately - the process of pouring out groundwater.

What is the salinity of the water?

A well-known fact is that water is an excellent solvent, therefore, in nature there is no water that does not contain soluble substances. Distilled water can only be obtained in the laboratory.

Salinity is the content of substances in grams dissolved in a liter (kg) of water. As mentioned earlier, the salinity of the Atlantic Ocean in ppm is 35.4 ‰. In 1 liter of ocean water, on average, 35 g of various kinds of substances are dissolved. In percentage terms, this is 3.5%. Thus, the salinity of the Atlantic Ocean as a percentage will also be approximately 3.5%. However, it is usually expressed in thousandths of a number (ppm).

In ocean water, solutions of all known substances on Earth are contained in different proportions. The salinity of the Atlantic Ocean (as well as all other oceans) is the result of the content of table salt in it in significant quantities. The salt of magnesium is added to the bitterness of ocean water. It also found: silver, aluminum, gold, copper. They make up a very small fraction, for example, 2 thousand tons of water contain a gram of gold. Obviously, it simply does not make sense to mine it.

A significant amount of dissolved substances is difficult to detect due to their scanty content. However, in aggregate - this is already a huge amount (if it was possible to evaporate all ocean water, these substances would cover the bottom of the World Ocean with a layer of 60 m). From their total volume, you can even create a shaft 1 km wide and 280 m high, encircling the Earth at the equator.

Atlantic Ocean: depth, area, sea

As it became known, the first distinguishing feature is the salinity of the Atlantic Ocean. In meters, its depth reaches 3700, and at the deepest point - 8742 m. Its area is 92 million square meters. km

The seas of the Atlantic Ocean are: Mediterranean, Caribbean, Sargasso, Marmara, Aegean, Tyrrhenian, Northern, Baltic, Adriatic, Black, Weddell, Azov, Irish, Ionian.

The salinity of the seas of the Atlantic Ocean

Factors Affecting Ocean Salinity

There are at least four main ones. The salinity of the Atlantic Ocean (like any other water body) depends on the following processes:

• evaporation of water from the surface of the ocean;
• fresh water entering the ocean (runoff, precipitation, etc.);
• dissolving salty rocks in water;
• decomposition of dead animals.

High salinity is also associated with the influx of salt water from the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar .

Earlier, many sailors in the ocean died of thirst. Later, sailors began to stockpile a significant amount of fresh water, which took up too much space. Now on ships water is desalinated by means of special desalination plants.