What is the salinity of the Atlantic Ocean?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:44

It is worth starting with the interpretation of such a concept as the "world ocean" - this is the water surface of the entire Earth, surrounded by land (continents, islands, etc.). In Russia and in a number of European countries, it is divided into four parts (of 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 landmass. 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 a variety of names: the Atlantic, "the sea behind the Pillars of Hercules", the Western Ocean, the Sea of Gloom. At the beginning of the XVI century. cartographer M. Waldseemuller called this ocean the Atlantic.

It is recognized as the second largest ocean on Earth after the Pacific. The ocean in questionlocated between Africa and Europe (to the east), Iceland and Greenland (to the north), South and North America (to the west), Antarctica and South America (to 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 most s alty ocean. The salinity of the Atlantic Ocean in ppm, according to official data, is 35.4‰. Its greatest value 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 ‰ (practically 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 distribution of salinity in the ocean is not always zonal. It depends on the following reasons:

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

Where is the greatest concentration of salinity recorded in the ocean in question?

It falls mainly on tropical latitudes (37.9‰). The coordinates of the area are 20-25 ° S. sh. (South Atlantic), 20-30°N sh. (Sev. Atlantic). In these places, there is predominantly trade wind circulation, there is quite little precipitation, evaporation in a layer of 3 m, fresh water practically does not come 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 waters of the Atlantic Ocean: equatorial latitudes

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

Specifics of the Atlantic Ocean

These are the so-called submarine sources - underground fresh water. One has long been well known to sailors. This source is located east of the peninsula called Florida (where sailors replenish fresh water). It is a sandy area in the s alty Atlantic Ocean up to 90 m long. Fresh water hits at a depth of forty meters, then tends to the surface. This is a kind of typical phenomenon - the discharge of a source in areas of karst development or within tectonic faults. In a situation where the pressure of groundwater significantly exceeds the pressure of the sea s alt water column,unloading will begin immediately - the process of outpouring groundwater.

What is the salinity of water?

It is a well-known fact 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 from the laboratory.

Salinity is the amount 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).

Ocean water contains solutions of all known substances on Earth in different proportions. The salinity of the Atlantic Ocean (as well as all other oceans) is the result of its content in significant amounts of table s alt. The bitterness of ocean water is given by magnesium s alts. It also contained: silver, aluminum, gold, copper. They make up a very small proportion, for example, 2 thousand tons of water contain a gram of gold. Obviously, there is simply no point in extracting it.

A significant amount of dissolved substances is difficult to detect due to their meager content. However, taken together, this is already a huge amount (if it were possible to evaporate all the ocean water, these substances would cover the bottom of the Worldocean 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 along the equator.

Atlantic Ocean: depth, area, seas

As already known, the first distinguishing feature is the salinity of the Atlantic Ocean. In meters, its depth indicator 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, B altic, Adriatic, Black, Weddell, Azov, Irish, Ionian.

Salinity of the seas of the Atlantic Ocean

Sea of the Atlantic Ocean	Salinity of the seas, (‰)
1. Aegean	38-38, 5
2. Black	17-18
3. Weddell	34
4. Tyrrhenian	37, 7-38
5. Mediterranean	36-39, 5
6. Northern	31-35
7. Sargasso	36, 5-37
8. Marble	16, 8-27, 8
9. Caribbean	35, 5-36
10. Ionic	38
11. B altic	6-8
12. Azov	13
13. Irish	32, 8-34, 8
14. Adriatic	30-38

Factors affecting ocean salinity

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

• evaporation of water from the surface of the ocean;
• inflow of fresh water into the ocean (runoff, precipitation, etc.);
• dissolving s alty rocks in water;
• decomposition of dead animals.

High salinity is also associated with the inflow of s alt water from the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibr altar.

Before, a lot of sailors died of thirst in the ocean. Later, sailors began to stock up on a significant amount of fresh water, which took up too much space. Water is now desalinated on ships using special desalination plants.