Why Is the Ocean Salty? Ocean Salinity Explained?

The ocean is salty because salt from the land has been dissolving into it for a very long time.

Imagine you have a big bowl of water and you keep throwing in tiny bits of salt, like when you season your soup. Over many years, the salt keeps going into the ocean, making it taste more and more salty.

Rivers are like little helpers that carry salt from the land to the ocean. When it rains, water flows down hills and through valleys, picking up pieces of rock and dirt along the way, including a bit of salt. This salty water travels all the way to the sea, where it gets added to the big bowl of ocean water.

Once the salt is in the ocean, it doesn’t go away easily. It stays dissolved in the water, just like how sugar dissolves in your tea. So the ocean keeps getting more salt every year, from all the rivers and little helpers around the world.