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The ocean is salty for several reasons, one of which is the groundwater from rain which trickles down into the ocean and picks up salt from the earth along its way! But this same water trickles down into lakes… so why aren't lakes salty?

The reason lake water usually isn't salty (or at least it's less salty than ocean water) is because the salty groundwater not only runs into the lakes, but also back out of it! Unlike the huge, vast ocean which already covers most of the Earth and therefore can't open up to any larger body of water, most lakes have outlets from which water leaves. This means that the salty groundwater has a chance to filter out and escape! (In the ocean, it has nowhere e

lse to go!)

The ocean is also salty from rainwater that falls onto rocks or land, picks up some salt in the earth, and then trickles down into the ocean! There are also some places in the ocean floor where salty gases and minerals from within the Earth get released into the ocean!  

As water flows in rivers, it picks up small amounts of mineral salts from the rocks and soil of the river beds.

but the salt remains dissolved in the ocean - it does not evaporate. So the remaining water gets saltier and saltier as time passes.

This very-slightly salty water flows into the oceans and seas. The water in the oceans only leaves by evaporating (and the freezing of polar ice),

In recent years, scientists have expanded the definition of taste, allowing one, and possibly two, primary tastes into the original canon of four -- sour, bitter, sweet and salty.

The rain that falls on the land contains some dissolved carbon dioxide from the surrounding air. This causes the rainwater to be slightly acidic due to carbonic acid (which forms from carbon dioxide and water).

As the rain erodes the rock, acids in the rainwater break down the rock.

The reasons for our crying changes as we grow from babies to adults. Learn more on the next page.