Just about everyone knows the ocean is salty.

The two most common elements in sea

water, after oxygen and hydrogen which make up the water molecule, are sodium and
chloride. Sodium and chloride combine to form what we know as table salt.

(Image Credit:Hannes Grobe, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany; via Wikimedia Commons)

Chemists call any mineral that dissolves in water a "salt." The salt ordinary, people talk
about, is sodium chloride - table salt. There is a lot of sodium and chlorine dissolved in
seawater. These two chemicals make seawater taste salty to us. The chart above shows
several other salts that are common in sea water. The six most abundant dissolved "salts"
are sodium, chlorine, sulfate, magnesium, calcium and potassium. FYI - The Great Salt
Lake has the same dissolved salts in its water only in much higher concentrations. If fact
there are five companies that extract millions of pounds of magnesium, salt, chlorine and
potassium from the Great Salt Lake.

Dissolved Gasses

There are three main gases that dissolve in seawater are oxygen, carbon dioxide, and
nitrogen. All dissolve directly from the atmosphere where it is in contact with the ocean
surface. Sea weeds and algae release additional oxygen into the water during
photosynthesis. Microbes cycle nitrogen in the ocean much as they do on land. Carbon
dioxide easily dissolves directly from the air although some is released by respiration from
fish. These dissolved gases support the life of the sea just like the gases in the atmosphere
supports the life on land.
If you have ever experienced warm soda you know it is not as fizzy as cold pop. The cold
soda retains a lot of dissolved carbon dioxide which gives the soda its fizz. Cold seawater
retains its oxygen carbon dioxide and nitrogen better than warm. Temperature affects the
amount of these gasses which can dissolve in the ocean. This is one reason why life is more
abundant in cold oceans than in warm seas.

Salinity ( adapted from the National Weather Service)

It is nearly impossible to swim or play at the beach without getting a taste of the salty sea.
Seawater salinity is expressed as a ratio of salt (in grams) in one liter of water. In sea water
there is typically close to 35 grams of dissolved salts in each liter. It is written as 35‰.
(The symbol is like a percent sign but has an extra zero in the bottom. It is read parts per
thousand.) The normal range of ocean salinity ranges between 33-37 grams per liter (33‰
- 37‰).

But as in weather, where there are areas of high and low pressure, there are areas of high
and low salinity. Of the five ocean basins, the Atlantic Ocean is the saltiest. On average,
there is a distinct decrease of salinity near the equator and at both poles, although for
different reasons.

Near the equator, the tropics receive the most rain on a consistent basis. As a result, the
fresh water falling into the ocean helps decrease the salinity of the surface water in that
region. As one move toward the poles, the region of rain decreases and with less rain and
more sunshine, evaporation increases.

Fresh water, in the form of water vapor, moves from the ocean to the atmosphere through
evaporation causing the higher salinity at mid latitudes. Toward the poles, fresh water from
melting ice decreases the surface salinity once again.

The saltiest locations in the ocean are the regions where evaporation is highest or seas that
are nearly surrounded by land. The saltiest ocean water is in the Red Sea and in the Persian
Gulf region (around 40‰) due to very high evaporation and little fresh water inflow from
rivers.

The "Average Salinity" map (below), shows the lowest salinity in the polar regions. Bear in
mind, this image depicts surface salinity only. The surface salinity is lower in the polar
regions than in tropical regions due to ice melting each summer. Ice freezing each winter at
the poles causes an increased salinity in the water under the ice pack. As ice forms the
dissolved salts remain in the unfrozen water. The increased salinity causes the water below
the ice pack to sink to the ocean floor. This cold, salty, sinking, water creates density
currents which circulate in the deep ocean.
The Atlantic has the highest average salinity and the Arctic the lowest.
Image Credit: https://www.weather.gov/jetstream/seawater

Density Temperature and Freezing

Water has a unique property. As the temperature decreases to 40°F (4°C) the molecules
slow, water contracts and the density increases. Below 40°F (4°C) the molecules begin to
bond to each other and as they do, the water begins to expand again, decreasing the
density. At 32°F (0°C) all molecules are locked into a crystalline structure with a resulting
nine percent expansion in size. This expansion, and corresponding decrease in density, is
the reason ice floats.

The amount of salt in sea water also determines the temperature at which sea water
freezes. Adding salt to water lowers the freezing temperature. Water with a salinity of 17‰
freezes at about 30°F (-1°C) and 35‰ water freezes at about 28.5°F (-2°C). Yet, despite
the saltiness of the ocean, sea ice contains very little salt, about a tenth of the amount of
salt that sea water has. This is because ice will not incorporate sea salt into its crystal
structure. Therefore, melting sea ice makes drinkable water.

The temperature and salinity of the sea water also help determine its density. As the
temperature of sea water decreases the density also increases. Also, as the salt content of
sea water increases, so does its density. This makes cold and salty seawater very dense.
So, in situations under sea ice the density of the underlying water continues to increase well
after an area is iced over. This has profound effects as you will learn later.

Thermocline ( adapted from the NOAA)

Bodies of water are made up of layers, determined by temperature. The top surface layer is
called the epipelagic zone, and is sometimes referred to as the "ocean skin" or "sunlight
zone." This layer interacts with the wind and waves, which mixes the water and distributes
the warmth. At the base of this layer is the thermocline. A thermocline is the transition layer
between the warmer mixed water at the surface and the cooler deep water below. It is
relatively easy to tell when you have reached the thermocline in a body of water because
there is a sudden change in temperature. In the thermocline, the temperature decreases
rapidly from the mixed layer temperature to the much colder deep-water temperature.

The red line in the image above shows a typical seawater temperature profile. You will
graph similar profiles later in this unit. The thermocline ( curved part of the red graph line)
is located where the temperature decreases rapidly from the sunlit mixed upper layer of the
ocean (called the epipelagic zone) to the colder darker, and deeper water in the
mesopelagic zone. Below 3,300 feet to a depth of about 13,100 feet, water temperature
remains constant. At depths below 13,100 feet, the temperature ranges from near freezing
to just above the freezing point of water as depth increases.

In the ocean, the depth and strength of the thermocline vary from season to season and
year to year. It is semi-permanent in the tropics, variable in temperate regions (often
deepest during the summer), and shallow to nonexistent in the polar regions, where the
water column is cold from the surface clear to the bottom.

Thermoclines also play a role in weather forecasting. For example, hurricane forecasters
must consider not just the temperature of the ocean's surface (the sea surface
temperature), but also the depth of warm water above the thermocline. Water vapor
evaporated from the ocean is a hurricane's primary fuel. The depth of the thermocline is the
measure of the size of the "fuel tank" and helps to predict the risk of hurricane formation.
Ocean Color ( adapted from the NOAA)
The ocean is blue because water absorbs colors in the red part of the light spectrum. Like a
filter, this leaves behind colors in the blue part of the light spectrum for us to see. The
brilliant colors you see when snorkeling or in photos like the one below are only visible if
you are very close to the object. Notice how the objects in the background in this sea
anemone photo are blue because the water has filtered out the other colors.

The ocean may also take on green, red, or other hues as light bounces off of floating
sediments and particles in the water.

Most of the ocean, however, is completely dark. Hardly any light penetrates deeper than
650 feet and no light penetrates deeper than 3,280 feet. Bioluminescence is the dominant
source of natural light below 3300 feet.
Pressure

Diving to the bottom of the deep end of the pool allows one to feel the pressure exerted by
the weight of the water above you. The pressure you feel is the result of how much water is
pushing on your body. One cubic foot of sea water weight 64.6 pounds. If you are ten feet
deep, the weight of the water above each square foot of your body is 646 pounds. ( 64.6 x 10
feet = 646) You feel this mostly in your ears. The water is pushing on your ear drums and
that produces some pain or discomfort.

If you dive deeper the pressure increases by 64.6 pounds per square foot for each foot of
depth. At 100 feet the pressure would be 6460 lbs/sq foot. At the bottom of the deepest
part of the ocean the pressure is more than 2 million pounds on each square foot. That's
enough to crush all but the strongest submersibles. One hundred and fifty years ago
scientists knew the pressure of the deep ocean was this large. They reasoned that no life
could ever survive such high pressures. When they dredged the sea floor they were
surprised to discover that life was abundant on the bottom of the sea.

Another way we measure the pressure in the deep is by comparing it to the air pressure at
the surface. At the surface we humans live in one atmosphere (1 atm) of pressure. This is
our "normal" pressure. In the deep sea the pressure increases 1 atmosphere for every 10
meters of depth.

Submersible Technology

Even today, only a few crewed (Human occupied vehicles) or HOV submarines can dive to
the deep ocean.
Image Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-submergence_vehicle

There are a lot of remotely operated vehicles or ROV submersibles which are becoming the
major technology used to explore the deep ocean. Most of these are tethered but a few are
autonomous.

https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/technology/subs/subs.html