[Lewis Thomson (OP)]

Sarah wants to know the answer to this question.

"Why is the ocean salty?"

Leave your answers in the comments below...

[vhfpmr]

There are salts in the soil which get flushed into the rivers and then the sea by rainfall. When the sun evaporates the water to form more clouds and rain the salt gets left behind in the sea, so if you repeat that cycle for billions of years the salt in the sea becomes more and more concentrated.

[dorothytetcher]

There are salts in the soil which get flushed into the rivers and then the sea by rainfall. When the sun evaporates the water to form more clouds and rain the salt gets left behind in the sea, so if you repeat that cycle for billions of years the salt in the sea becomes more and more concentrated.

It's a usual water cycle, right?
The peculiarity of the atmosphere.

[alancalverd]

And the biggest mystery of all is why the oceans are wet! If the planet began as a hot rock, where did the water come from?

[paul cotter]

Tut tut, Alancalverd, you should know the answer to that one: god sent all that water at the time of noah's flood!