Answers to your questions about science and nature If you live near the ocean, or you've ever travelled to the seaside, you've heard the sound of waves. And if you've tasted ocean water, you'll know that it's salty. According to Dr. Steve Calvert, Professor of Oceanography at the University of British Columbia, this is how it works.
Rainwater falls over the land.
It's slightly acidic, and gradually eats away at the rocks on the land, adding minerals, some of which are salts, to rivers and streams. The salts are so heavily diluted in rivers that we can't taste them. But when the rivers flow into the oceans, the salt collects. These generally occur because a lake has been cut off from a flow of fresh water. The salts build up, the same way they do in the oceans.