If swimming in it isn't enough, you're reminded how salty the ocean is when you accidentally swallow some. Here's where that salt water comes from.

Oceanography, Vol. 28, No. 1, Special Issue on the Salinity Processes in the Upper-ocean Regional Study (MARCH 2015), pp. 20-31 (12 pages) ABSTRACTAlterations to the global water cycle are of concern ...

If swimming in it isn't enough, you're reminded how salty the ocean is when you accidentally swallow some. Here's where that salt water comes from.

The salinity level in some seas is much higher than the rest of the ocean, like the Mediterranean. Some lakes, such as California's Mono Lake and the Caspian Sea in Asia, are saltier.

Ocean currents act like conveyor belts, moving warm and cold water across the planet. The salinity of water plays a big role in this process because saltier water is denser and sinks, while ...

Seawater is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of approximately 3.5%, or 35 parts per thousand. This means that for every 1 litre (1000 mL) of ...

For more than a century, a patch of cold water south of Greenland has resisted the Atlantic Ocean's overall warming, fueling ...

The near-bottom water in the U.S. Northeast continental shelf provides a critical cold-water habitat for the rich regional marine ecosystem. This "cold pool" preserves winter temperatures, even ...

Though satellites are capable of capturing salinity data from large portions of the ocean, data from buoys and in-water devices, such as the Velella velella sensors, provides localized, ...

To distinguish water masses, oceanographers chart the relationship between temperature and salinity across the ocean — two measurements that combine to determine the density of seawater.

During the last major glaciation (about 11,000 years ago), for instance, a slug of freshwater came down the St. Lawrence River into the North Atlantic, reducing its salinity, shutting off the sinking ...