Salinity Sat, 4 Feb 06, 2:32 pm
Salinity is a measure of the quantity of dissolved salts in water. Salinity is measured in terms of the electrical conductivity of a salt solution.
To some extent, ocean salinity is influenced by the geologic formations underlying the sea. Salinity is lower in areas underlain by igneous formations and higher in areas underlain by sedimentary formations.
Higher salinity is more likely in arid regions where evaporation rates are high. Evaporation leaves the same amount of salt in less water, which increases the salinity.
But does extreme high level of salt in seawater kill animals like fishes, birds ? Answer is yes,
Many marine organisms are highly affected by changes in salinity. This is because of a process called osmosis which is the ability of water to move in and out of living cells, in response to a concentration of a dissolved material, until an equilibrium is reached. In general the dissolved material does not easily cross the cell membrane so the water flows by osmosis to form an equilibrium. Marine organisms respond to this as either being osmotic conformers (also called poikilosmotic) or osmotic regulators (or homeosmotic).
Marine fishes usually survive in an environment that is more concentrated in salt than them. Without any regulation the high salt concentration of the ocean would draw all the water out of them. To prevent dehydration, marine osmoregulators drink salt water and actively transport salts to the environment with chloride cells on its gills. Salts are also excreted in the urine.
States of Water
Water exists in 3 states, namely liquid, gaseous, solid. Read more about it here. Evaporation is the conversion of liquid water to gas or water vapour. On the contrary, condensation is the conversion of gas or water vapour to liquid water. Check out the water cycle at Kidzone – Fun fact for kids.
The rate of evaporation will depend upon a number of factors. Rates increase when temperatures are higher. An increase of 10°C will approximately double the rate of evaporation. The humidity of the surrounding air will also influence evaporation. Drier air has a greater “thirst” for water vapour than humid, moist air. It follows therefore, that the presence of wind will also increase evaporation. On still days, water evaporating to the air remains close to its source, increasing the local humidity. As the moisture content of the air increases, evaporation will diminish. If, however, a steady flow of air exists to remove the newly formed vapour, the air surrounding the water source will remain dry, “thirsty” for future water.
Freezing point of salt water
Saltwater has a much lower freezing point (the freezing point is the temperature where something freezes) than freshwater does. And the more salt there is in it, the lower the freezing point gets. So in order to know the exact temperature that it’s going to freeze, you have to know just how salty it is. For saltwater that’s as saturated as it can possibly get (i.e. there’s no way to dissolve any more salt in it no matter how hard you tried), the freezing point is -21.1 degrees Celsius. This is when the saltwater is 23.3% salt (by weight). Why ?
Difference between Steam and Water Vapour
Steam is merely water vapour at a temperature equal to or greater than the boiling point. We cannot see water vapour; for the same reason, we cannot see steam.
When water is heated in a vessel with a nozzle, a cloud forms as the hot water vapour issuing from the nozzle mixes with the colder surrounding air. Such a cloud is popularly, although incorrectly, called “steam”. We cannot see steam, so what we can see is not rightly called steam. Call the cloud what you like, but just remember that it is composed of water droplets not water vapour. Like mixing cloud in meteorology, it is the mixing of moist air masses with different characteristics that yields such a cloud. If you heat the nozzle with a gas torch the cloud will soon disappear. Yet, water vapour is still issuing from the nozzle.
Salt and the boiling point of water
Comparing pure water and salt water, salt water has a higher boling point, and therefore takes longer time to boil. This is caused by the solute (salt) in the salt water, higher level of energy is required to convert the solute component to gaseous state.
Volume of Water and Ice
With the same mass, volume of water changes as it freezes into ice. This is due to change of density.
i learn poor information
I have the plans that to turn a car into a partial Hydrogen burner. The interesting thing is that included is a way to utilize the device to purify water. It is pretty cool. It uses pure H2O and a bit of baking soda. But you can use salt water as well. I made several electrolyzers and will put them into my car ASAP.
http://water-for-gas-reviews.com/