Chemical properties  

Principal constituents of seawater

At salinity = 34.7
 The main chemical constituent of seawater Name of Atomic g/kg of moles/kg relative
is salt (NaCl), a very simple chemical constituent weight seawater seawater conc'n
compound, that is found in the tissues of all Chloride as NaCl 35.001 19.162 0.5405 1.0000
living organisms. The oceans encompass Sodium Na 22.99 10.679 0.4645 0.8593
about 5 billion cubic kilometre, or 5E21 kg. Magnesium Mg 24.305 1.278 0.0526 0.0974
Sulphate SO4 96.026 2.680 0.0279 0.0517
About 3.5% of that is salt, an unimaginable Calcium Ca 40.078 0.4096 0.01022 0.0189
amount. It was thought that the salt in the Potassium K 39.098 0.3953 0.01011 0.0187
oceans has accumulated over the 3 billion Carbon C 12.011 0.0276 0.0023 0.0043
years or so, that rivers flowed into it, Bromine Br 79.904 0.0663 0.00083 0.00154
carrying dissolved salts from soil erosion, but Boron B 10.811 0.0044 0.00041 0.00075
Strontium Sr 87.62 0.0079 0.00009 0.000165
if this was so, the oceans would have been Fluorine F 18.998 0.0013 0.00007 0.000125
far saltier than they are. So, simultaneous Nitrogen ions 14.007 0.0007 - -
with the salt entering the sea, there must be   Atomic weight x moles = grams
an equal amount of salt leaving the sea. The
mechanism for doing so, is not known, but
salt may have been subducted under the
continents, by tectonic movements. There it
reforms with other salts into rock crystals.

When the first organisms formed in the archaean sea, they did not have cell membranes. The whole sea
acted as their bodies. Later organisms did develop membranes and were able to retain their body salts
within. As the chemistry of the sea changed, the organisms developed abilities to extract salts and liquids
from their environment and to maintain the liquids inside their bodies at constant concentrations. It seems as
if every living organism today, carries inside it a remnant of the archaean sea. It is not surprising that the
seawater elements, are essential to all life on earth. When plants started to live on the land, not only did they
have to maintain their body fluids against the odds of drying out, but they also had to acquire the ability to
scavenge nutrients  from nutrient-poor soils, and to accumulate these into their tissues. Animals did not need
this capability, because they ate the plants (herbivores) or other animals (carnivores).