GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -The vast majority of water on the Earth’s surface, over 96 percent, is saline water in the oceans.

Detailed explanation-2: -The water in the oceans is saline (saltwater). Saline water contains significant amounts (referred to as “concentrations") of dissolved salts.

Detailed explanation-3: -Oceans cover about 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and about 97 percent of all water on and in the Earth is saline-there’s a lot of salty water on our planet.

Detailed explanation-4: -Earth’s water is (almost) everywhere: above the Earth in the air and clouds, on the surface of the Earth in rivers, oceans, ice, plants, in living organisms, and inside the Earth in the top few miles of the ground.

Detailed explanation-5: -Why is the ocean salty? Rivers discharge mineral-rich water to the oceans. Satellite view of La Plata River discharge to the Atlantic Ocean. One way minerals and salts are deposited into the oceans is from outflow from rivers, which drain the landscape, thus causing the oceans to be salty.