And indeed - why, because thousands of fresh rivers flow into all seas and oceans, and the water in them is very salty. Science has no answer to this question, like many others. But despite this, in last years Many discoveries have been made that shed light on many things, including this mysterious issue. The problem, as in many other cases, is that many important discoveries simply do not reach the general public.
A similar situation has developed with the so-called “black smokers”, known mainly only to specialists in geology and hydromorphology. "Black smokers", or hydrothermal vents of mid-ocean ridges, are numerous sources operating on the ocean floor, confined to the axial parts of mid-ocean ridges. It is from them that highly mineralized minerals constantly enter the oceans. hot water under pressure of hundreds of atmospheres. They are tube-shaped formations reaching a height of tens of meters, the stability of which, according to official science, is ensured by the action of Archimedes' force.
Hydrothermal ocean vents, according to official scientists, carry dissolved elements from the oceanic crust into the oceans, while changing the crust itself and making a very significant contribution to chemical composition oceans. In conjunction with the cycle of generation of oceanic crust at ocean ridges and its recycling into the mantle, hydrothermal alteration produces the transfer of elements between the mantle and the oceans. The oceanic crust recycled into the mantle, as scientists see it, is responsible for part of the mantle heterogeneity.
According to scientists, hydrothermal springs are a kind of “oases of life” in the deep aphotic zone of the ocean, existing not on the basis of photosynthesis, but on the chemosynthesis of chemosynthetic bacteria. Let us recall that the aphotic zone is the deep water column of a reservoir, characterized by a complete absence of sunlight and an almost complete absence of photosynthesis. This is a habitat for unusual biological communities that ensure the formation of independent ecosystems. Thus, the deepest parts of the biosphere are confined to them, reaching depths of 2500 meters or more.
Hydrothermal vents are believed to make a significant contribution to the Earth's heat balance. Under the median ridges, the mantle comes closest to the surface. Scientists think that sea water penetrates through cracks into the oceanic crust to a considerable depth, due to thermal conductivity, it is heated by mantle heat and concentrated in magma chambers. Further, according to scientists, the internal pressure of superheated water in the chambers leads to the release of highly mineralized jets from sources at the bottom. In fact, of course, a really ongoing process
Their total contribution to the Earth’s heat balance is estimated to be about 20% of the total geothermal heat released - annually “black smokers” spew out about 3·10 to the 9th power of highly mineralized water heated to 350 °C, and about 6·10 to the 11th power of water - low-temperature sources (above 20 °C).
Water forms the water shell of our planet - the hydrosphere (from the Greek words “hydro” - water, “sphere” - ball).
¾ of the surface of the globe is occupied by water, and ¼ of the surface is occupied by land. The hydrosphere includes three main parts: the oceans, land waters and water in the atmosphere.
The World Ocean accounts for over 96% of our planet. Continents and islands divide it into separate oceans: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and Arctic.
Land waters include rivers, lakes, swamps, glaciers and groundwater. The share of rivers, lakes and swamps is very small - only 0.02% of the volume of the hydrosphere.
Much more water is contained in glaciers - about 2% of the volume of the hydrosphere. They should not be confused with the ice that forms when water freezes. Glaciers are formed from snow. They occur where more snow falls than has time to melt. Gradually, the snow accumulates, compacts and turns into ice. Glaciers are located on the mainland of Antarctica and the island of Greenland, as well as on the tops of high mountains.
Groundwater makes up about 2% of the hydrosphere.
There is water in the atmosphere, it is there in the form of water vapor, water droplets, ice crystals. Atmospheric moisture makes up only 1/1000 of the total water supply on Earth, but its role is enormous. It feeds rivers, lakes, glaciers, and saturates the Earth with water. Without it, the water cycle on our planet would be impossible.
Hydrology is the science that studies natural waters, their interaction with the atmosphere and lithosphere, as well as the phenomena and processes occurring in them (evaporation, freezing, etc.).
The subject of the study of hydrology is all types of hydrosphere waters in oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, swamps, soil and groundwater.
Hydrology studies the water cycle in nature, analyzes the hydrosphere, gives an assessment and forecast of the state and rational use water resources. Uses methods used in geography, physics and other sciences. Sea hydrology data is used when sailing and conducting combat operations by surface ships and submarines.
Hydrology is divided into oceanology, land hydrology and hydrogeology.
The importance of water for our planet, humans and living organisms
Scientists are absolutely right: there is no substance on Earth that is more important for us than ordinary water, and at the same time there is no other substance whose properties would have as many contradictions and anomalies as its properties.
Almost 3/4 of the surface of our planet is occupied by oceans and seas. Hard water - snow and ice - covers 20% of the land. The climate of the planet depends on water. Geophysicists claim that the Earth would have cooled long ago and turned into a lifeless piece of stone if it were not for water. It has a very high heat capacity. When heated, it absorbs heat; cooling down, he gives it away. Earth's water both absorbs and returns a lot of heat and thereby “evens out” the climate. And those water molecules that are scattered in the atmosphere protect the Earth from cosmic cold - it is impossible to do without water in the clouds and in the form of vapor - this is the most important substance on the ground.
There is more than enough water on Earth. But we must not forget that life on planet Earth, according to scientists, first appeared in water, and only then came to land. Organisms have maintained their dependence on water during evolution for many millions of years. Water is the main one" construction material", from which their body consists. This can be easily verified by analyzing the numbers in the following table:
Table 1
Medusa 97-99%
Cucumbers, salad 95%
Tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms 90%
Pears, apples 85%
Potatoes 80%
Human 65-70%
The last number of this table indicates that a person weighing 70 kg contains 50 kg of water! But there is even more of it in the human embryo: in a three-day-old - 97%, in a three-month-old - 91%, in an eight-month-old - 81%.
The problem of “water hunger” is the need to maintain a certain amount of water in the body, since there is a constant loss of moisture during various physiological processes. For normal existence in a temperate climate, a person needs to receive about 3.5 liters of water per day from drinking and food; in the desert this norm increases to at least 7.5 liters. A person can exist without food for about forty days, and without water much less - 8 days. According to special medical experiments, with a loss of moisture in the amount of 6-8% of body weight, a person falls into a semi-fainting state, with a loss of 10%, hallucinations begin, with 12% a person can no longer recover without special medical care, and with a loss of 20%, inevitable death occurs.
Many animals adapt well to lack of moisture. The most famous and shining example this is the “ship of the desert”, the camel. It can live for a very long time in a hot desert without consuming drinking water. At the same time, without compromising its performance, it loses up to 30% of its original weight. Thus, in one of the special tests, a camel lost 100 kg from 450 kg of its initial weight in 8 days of work under the scorching summer sun. And when they brought him to the water, he drank 103 liters and regained his weight. It has been established that a camel can obtain up to 40 liters of moisture by converting the fat accumulated in its hump. They don't use it at all drinking water desert animals such as jerboas and kangaroo rats - they have enough moisture, which they receive from food, and water formed in their bodies during the oxidation of their own fat, just like camels.
Plants consume even more water for their growth and development. A head of cabbage “drinks” more than one liter of water per day, one tree, on average, more than 200 liters of water. Of course, this is a fairly approximate figure - different tree species in different natural conditions consume very, very different quantity moisture. Thus, saxaul growing in the desert wastes a minimal amount of moisture, and eucalyptus, which in some places is called a “pump tree,” passes a huge amount of water through itself, and for this reason its plantings are used to drain swamps.
Three states of water.
The transition of water from one state to another
We are already familiar with some properties of water. Water is transparent, colorless, odorless and tasteless, fluid. Water can be liquid (in seas, oceans, rivers, lakes), solid (in the form of snow and ice) or gaseous.
Ice is the solid state of water. A thick layer of ice has a bluish color, which is due to the way it refracts light. The compressibility of ice is very low. Ice at normal pressure exists only at temperatures of 0°C or below and is less dense than cold water. This is why icebergs float in water. Moreover, since the ratio of the densities of ice and water at 0 ° C is constant, the ice always protrudes from the water by a certain part, namely 1/9 of its volume.
Experiment: Take an ice cube with a volume of 169 cm3. Let's lower it into the water and measure the height of the protruding part of the ice above the water. Height 0.4 cm, which is 17cm3. Therefore, it is 1/9 part.
Water in a gaseous state is called water vapor. When talking about air humidity, they usually mean the amount of water vapor. If the air is described as "moist", it means that the air contains a large amount of water vapor.
How can you transfer water from one state to another? To answer this question, let's conduct an experiment.
Experiment: Let's take a lump of snow 19 grams, snow temperature -1°C, put it in a flask and heat it. After 4 minutes, the snow will melt and water will form in the glass. Therefore, when heated, solid water turns into liquid. Let's continue heating the water. After 1 minute it will boil. If you heat it for 11 minutes, it will all evaporate. Turns into water vapor. Water vapor is an invisible impurity.
The temperature at which it boils is called the boiling point. Typically this temperature is 100°C. But boiling can also occur at other temperatures. It depends on the atmospheric pressure. Boiling water is used in everyday life and in various industries. It is also found in nature in the form of geysers.
Thus, when heated, water goes from solid state to liquid and then from liquid to gas.
When water cools, it changes from liquid to solid. We often observe this process in nature, when water bodies freeze in the fall. Ice is on top, it is lighter than water, its layer reliably protects the inhabitants of the reservoir from winter frosts.
If all the glaciers melted, the water level on Earth would rise by 64 m and about 1/8 of the land surface would be flooded with water.
Sea water, with its usual salinity of 35 ‰, freezes at a temperature of −1.91 °C.
Processes: evaporation, transpiration, condensation
When water is heated and boiled, it turns into steam, which is evaporation. Evaporation is the process of water changing from liquid to gaseous state. Evaporation occurs at any temperature, but when boiling, water vapor is formed especially quickly. Puddles dry up after rain both in hot summer and cold autumn. But in summer they dry out faster. Wind speeds up evaporation, so puddles dry out faster in windy weather. Water evaporates from the surface of the World Ocean, lakes, rivers, and reservoirs.
Not only water, but also other liquids evaporate. The ice gradually evaporates too. Therefore, water vapor rises above the glaciers. The laundry dries in the cold.
A significant amount of water from the land surface is evaporated by plants. Transpiration is the process of water transitioning from a liquid state to a gaseous state during the respiration of living organisms. You can verify that every plant evaporates water by doing a simple experiment.
Experiment: Place a leaf of a houseplant peralgonia in a glass flask without cutting it from the plant. Cover the neck of the flask with cotton wool. After some time, droplets of water will appear on the walls of the flask. Where did the water in the flask come from? She was vaporized by the leaf.
Evaporation of water from plant leaves differs from evaporation from the surface of a reservoir. In plants this is a complex life process. Plants evaporate water through small holes in the leaves called stomata. The stomata of most plants are located in the skin on the underside of the leaf. Periodically, opening and closing, they regulate the flow of air into the leaves. The number of stomata per 1 mm2 of leaf ranges from several hundred to a thousand. There are more than a million of them on one linden leaf, and several million on a cabbage leaf. The stomata are very small. The tip of a thin needle seems like a giant compared to the tiny stomata. Despite their small size, more than 90% of the water absorbed by the plant evaporates through the stomata.
The larger the leaves, the more water they evaporate. Plants in humid areas usually have large leaves. The homeland of our indoor plants with large leaves - begonias, ficus - is tropical rainforests.
Another experiment will help determine how much water the plant evaporates.
Experiment: A shoot (stem with leaves) of Tradescantia was placed in a vessel with water. A little vegetable oil was poured onto the surface of the water into the vessel. A layer of oil prevents evaporation from the surface of the water. Place the vessel with water on the scales and balance the scales with weights. Within a day, the scales on which the vessel is located will rise. Balance the scales again by placing several weights on the raised scale. Calculate how much water (in grams) the leaves of the cut shoot evaporated per day.
table 2
Experimental results
Amount of water in the vessel
1 day of observation 158 g 510 ml g
2nd day of observation 158 g 10 mlg
3rd day of observation 157 g 300 mlg
Conclusion 1 g 210 mlg evaporated leaves of cut shoots
One cabbage plant evaporates up to 1 liter of water per day, oak - 50 liters, birch - 60 liters, sunflower - up to 100 liters of water.
Another process that is widespread in nature is the conversion of water vapor into water. Try breathing on a mirror. Its surface will be covered with droplets of water. Where did she come from? Experiments provide the answer.
Experiment: If you place a small glass or metal plate over boiling water, droplets of water will form on it. This water vapor turns into water, i.e. condensation occurs. In the same way, condensation of water vapor occurs when we breathe on the mirror.
It is easy to observe the condensation of water vapor if you hold a saucer over the spout of a kettle of boiling water.
The importance of the processes of evaporation, transpiration and condensation for nature and humans
Evaporation has great importance in the life of humans and animals. Difficulty in evaporation can cause the body to overheat. Coming out of the water after swimming, even on a hot day, you feel cool. This happens because when water evaporates, the temperature at the surface of the body decreases.
The sun strongly heats various objects: stones, sand, iron, etc. It also heats the leaves and stems of the plant. The evaporation of water on a sunny day cools the plants and protects them from overheating. At the same time, the temperature on the surface of the leaves decreases to air temperature and below. That is why under the canopy of trees, even in dry and hot weather, it is cool and easy to breathe. However, excessive strong evaporation causes plants to wither and sometimes die. This is why plants have evolved various adaptations to reduce evaporation. Thus, the leaves of many plants in arid places are modified into spines, for example, cacti. Evaporation depends not only on air temperature, but also on other conditions environment, for example, depending on the time of day. During the day, plants evaporate relatively a lot of water, and at night very little. Therefore, to keep the flowers looking fresh longer, they are cut in the evening. In the shade, plants evaporate less water than in the sun. In strong and dry winds, evaporation occurs faster than in calm weather.
We encounter condensation of water vapor in Everyday life. On a summer evening or early morning, when the air becomes colder, dew falls. This is water vapor in the air that, when cooled, settles on grass, leaves and other objects in the form of small droplets of water. Clouds also form from the condensation of water vapor. Rising above the ground and bodies of water into the upper, colder layers of air, this steam forms clouds consisting of tiny droplets of water. If the air temperature is low enough, the water droplets freeze. Snow and sometimes hail fall from such clouds.
All the water on Earth is in continuous movement. Evaporating from the surface of land, oceans, seas and other bodies of water, it replenishes atmospheric moisture reserves in the form of vapor. Almost 90% of water vapor occurs in the lowest 5-kilometer layer of the atmosphere. Most of This moisture comes from the surface of the World Ocean and the zone of humid equatorial forests.
As the temperature decreases, the steam condenses. Therefore, at altitudes where the air temperature drops, clouds form. Winds carry clouds. And with them, atmospheric moisture from one area of the ocean to another, from ocean area to land area. Falling in the form of rain, snow or hail, atmospheric moisture, continuing its movement, feeds groundwater, rivers and lakes, forms glaciers, moistens the soil, is absorbed and then evaporated by plants. A forest, for example, evaporates 10 times more water than a body of water of the same area. Having fallen onto land, the water again partially evaporates, replenishing the reserves of atmospheric moisture, and again falls in the form of precipitation on the ground.
The water that air currents bring from the ocean to land is eventually returned by rivers to the ocean. This is how the eternal water cycle occurs in nature. At the same time, it passes from one state to another, moves around the globe from one area to another.
What forces set in motion the huge masses of water that make up the planet’s water shell, its hydrosphere?
The main force is solar heat. Under its influence, water evaporates, snow and glaciers melt, and a wind arises that carries water from one place to another. When there is a lack of heat, water condenses.
Gravity also plays an important role, under the influence of which raindrops fall and water flows from higher to lower places. Under the influence of gravity, water seeps deep into the earth and glaciers slide. The process of water movement in nature, starting in the World Ocean and ending in it, is circular in nature and is called the water cycle in nature. Thanks to which the water on our planet does not dry out.
The water cycle in nature not only sets in motion the entire water shell of the Earth, but also connects all parts of the hydrosphere into a single whole, constantly replenishing water reserves in its various parts. However, the rate of replenishment of water reserves in different parts the hydrosphere is not the same. Most often, atmospheric moisture changes - every 9 days, or 40 times a year. The water in all rivers on Earth changes completely within 12 days, or 30 times a year. Groundwater supplies and water in the desert are replenishing more slowly. This replenishment occurs least often in polar glaciers - once every 8 thousand years, in Antarctica - once every tens of millions of years.
With the water cycle, heat moves across the surface of the Earth, and also during evaporation, water is purified. The water cycle in nature ensures the interconnection of the hydrosphere with the lithosphere, the air envelope of the Earth, flora and fauna.
Conclusion
There is no more important substance on Earth than ordinary water.
The climate of the planet depends on water. Geophysicists claim that the Earth would have cooled long ago and turned into a lifeless piece of stone if it were not for water. It has a very high heat capacity. When heated, it absorbs heat; cooling down, he gives it away. Earth's water both absorbs and returns a lot of heat and thereby “evens out” the climate. And those water molecules that are scattered in the atmosphere - in clouds and in the form of vapors - protect the Earth from cosmic cold.
Water is the main “building material” of which the human body and all other living organisms are composed.
Water on Earth exists in three states: liquid, solid and gas, and can change from one state to another. Thanks to the processes: evaporation, transpiration, condensation, all waters participate in the world cycle. Therefore, water on Earth does not dry out.
The importance of the global water cycle on Earth is great. Imagine that precipitation brought from the ocean has ceased to fall on land. Gradually, all the water on it will disappear, as some of it will evaporate, and some will flow into the ocean. Without water, neither plants nor animals can exist on land.
Due to the water cycle, all parts of the hydrosphere are closely united and connect the other shells of our planet with each other: the lithosphere, atmosphere, biosphere.
You cannot do without water - it is the most important substance on Earth.
Why is the sea salty, and where does the salt come from? This is a question that has interested people for a long time. There is even a folk tale about this.
As folklore explains
Whose legend this is, and who exactly came up with it, is no longer known. But among the peoples of Norway and the Philippines it is very similar, and the essence of the question of why the sea is salty is conveyed in the fairy tale as follows.
There were two brothers - one rich, and the other, as usual, poor. And no, to go and earn bread for his family - the poor man goes for alms to his stingy rich brother. Having received a half-dried ham as a “gift”, the poor man, in the course of some events, falls into the hands of evil spirits and exchanges this very ham for a stone millstone, modestly standing outside the door. And the millstone is not simple, but magical, and can grind whatever your heart desires. Naturally, the poor man could not live quietly, in abundance, and not talk about his miraculous find. In one version, he immediately built a palace for himself on one day, in another, he threw a feast for the whole world. Since everyone around him knew that just yesterday he had lived poorly, those around him began to ask questions about where and why. The poor man did not consider it necessary to hide the fact that he had a magic millstone, and therefore many hunters appeared to steal it. The last person to do so was the salt merchant. Having stolen the millstone, he did not ask to grind money, gold, or overseas delicacies for him, because having such a “device”, he could no longer engage in the salt trade. He asked to grind salt for him so that he would not have to swim across the seas and oceans for it. A miracle millstone started up and ground so much salt that it sank the unfortunate merchant’s ship, and the millstone fell to the bottom of the sea, continuing to grind salt. This is how people explained why the sea is salty.
Scientific explanations of the fact
The main source of salts in the seas and oceans are rivers.
Yes, those rivers that are considered fresh (more correctly, less salty, because only the distillate is fresh, that is, devoid of salt impurities), in which the salt value does not exceed one ppm, make the seas salty. This explanation can be found in Edmund Halley, a man known for the comet named after him. In addition to space, he studied more mundane issues, and it was he who first put forward this theory. Rivers constantly bring huge amounts of water along with small impurities of salts into the depths of the sea. There the water evaporates, but the salts remain. Perhaps earlier, many hundreds of thousands of years ago, ocean waters were completely different. But they add another factor that may explain why the seas and oceans are salty - volcanic eruptions.
Chemicals from volcanoes bringing salt to the sea
At a time when Earth's crust was in a stage of constant formation. There were frequent emissions of magma with an incredible amount of different elements to the surface - both on land and under water. Gases, indispensable companions of eruptions, mixed with moisture and turned into acids. And they, in turn, reacted with the alkali of the soil, forming salts.
This process is still happening now, because seismological activity, although much lower than it was millions of years ago, is still present.
In principle, other facts explaining why the water in the sea is salty have already been studied: salts enter the seas from the soil through movement by precipitation and winds. Moreover, in each open body of water the chemical composition of the earth’s main liquid is individual. To the question of why the sea is salty, Wikipedia answers in the same way, only emphasizing the harm of sea water for the human body as drinking water, and its benefits when taking baths, inhalations, and the like. It’s not for nothing that sea salt is so popular, which is even added to food instead of table salt.
Unique mineral composition
We have already mentioned that the mineral composition is unique in each body of water. Why the sea is salty and how salty it is is determined by the intensity of evaporation, that is, the wind temperature on the reservoir, the number of rivers that flow into the reservoir, the richness of flora and fauna. So, everyone knows what kind of sea is the Dead Sea, and why it is called that.
Let's start with the fact that it is incorrect to call this body of water a sea. It is a lake because it has no connection with the ocean. It was called dead because of the huge proportion of salts - 340 grams per liter of water. For this reason, no fish can survive in a body of water. But as a health resort, the Dead Sea is very, very popular.
Which sea is the saltiest?
But the right to be called the saltiest belongs to the Red Sea.
There are 41 grams of salts in a liter of water. Why is the Red Sea so salty? Firstly, its waters are replenished only by precipitation and the Gulf of Aden. The second one is also salty. Secondly, the evaporation of water here is twenty times higher than its replenishment, which is facilitated by its location in the tropical zone. If it were a little further south, closer to the equator, and the amount of precipitation characteristic of this zone would dramatically change its content. Due to its location (the Red Sea is located between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula), it is also the warmest sea among all those on planet Earth. Its average temperature is 34 degrees Celsius. The whole system of possible climatic and geographical factors made the sea what it is now. And this applies to any body of salt water.
The Black Sea is one of the unique compositions
For the same reasons, one can single out the Black Sea, whose composition is also unique.
Its salt content is 17 ppm, and these are not entirely suitable indicators for marine inhabitants. If the fauna of the Red Sea amazes any visitor with its diversity of colors and life forms, then do not expect the same from the Black Sea. Most of the “settlers” of the seas cannot tolerate water with less than 20 ppm salts, so the diversity of life is somewhat reduced. But it contains many useful substances that contribute to the active development of single- and multicellular algae. Why is the Black Sea half as salty as the ocean? This is primarily due to the fact that the size of the territory from which river water flows into it exceeds the sea area itself by five times. At the same time, the Black Sea is very closed - it is connected to the Mediterranean only by a thin strait, but otherwise it is surrounded by land. The salt concentration cannot become very high due to intensive desalination by river waters - the first and most important factor.
Conclusion: we see a complex system
So why is the water in the sea salty? This depends on many factors - river waters and their saturation with substances, winds, volcanoes, the amount of precipitation, the intensity of evaporation, and this, in turn, affects the level and diversity of living organisms in it, both representatives of flora and fauna. This is a huge system with a large number of parameters that ultimately make up an individual picture.
And indeed - why, because thousands of fresh rivers flow into all seas and oceans, and the water in them is very salty. Science has no answer to this question, like many others. But despite this, many discoveries have been made in recent years that shed light on many things, including this mysterious issue. The problem, as in many other cases, is that many important discoveries simply do not reach the general public.
A similar situation has developed with the so-called “black smokers”, known mainly only to specialists in geology and hydromorphology. "Black smokers", or hydrothermal vents of mid-ocean ridges, are numerous sources operating on the ocean floor, confined to the axial parts of mid-ocean ridges. It is from them that highly mineralized hot water under pressure of hundreds of atmospheres constantly flows into the oceans. They are tube-shaped formations reaching a height of tens of meters, the stability of which, according to official science, is ensured by the action of Archimedes' force.
Hydrothermal ocean vents, according to official scientists, carry dissolved elements from the oceanic crust into the oceans, while changing the crust itself and making a very significant contribution to the chemical composition of the oceans. In conjunction with the cycle of generation of oceanic crust at ocean ridges and its recycling into the mantle, hydrothermal alteration produces the transfer of elements between the mantle and the oceans. The oceanic crust recycled into the mantle, as scientists see it, is responsible for part of the mantle heterogeneity.
According to scientists, hydrothermal springs are a kind of “oases of life” in the deep aphotic zone of the ocean, existing not on the basis of photosynthesis, but on the chemosynthesis of chemosynthetic bacteria. Let us recall that the aphotic zone is the deep water column of a reservoir, characterized by a complete absence of sunlight and an almost complete absence of photosynthesis. This is a habitat for unusual biological communities that ensure the formation of independent ecosystems. Thus, the deepest parts of the biosphere are confined to them, reaching depths of 2500 meters or more.
Hydrothermal vents are believed to make a significant contribution to the Earth's heat balance. Under the median ridges, the mantle comes closest to the surface. Scientists think that sea water penetrates through cracks into the oceanic crust to a considerable depth, due to thermal conductivity, it is heated by mantle heat and concentrated in magma chambers. Further, according to scientists, the internal pressure of superheated water in the chambers leads to the release of highly mineralized jets from sources at the bottom. In fact, of course, a really ongoing process
Their total contribution to the Earth’s heat balance is estimated to be about 20% of the total geothermal heat released - annually “black smokers” spew out about 3·10 to the 9th power of highly mineralized water heated to 350 °C, and about 6·10 to the 11th power of water - low-temperature sources (above 20 °C).
The deepest "smokers" discovered are located at a depth of 5000 m in the Cayman Trench.
Along with “black smokers,” there are also “white smokers,” which emit lighter-colored solutions and suspensions of minerals containing large quantities barium, silicon and calcium.
In other words, it is the “smokers” who are one of the main instruments of ocean salinization. But were the oceans always salty, or were they initially fresh, and their salinization began due to the processes of global change in the appearance of our planet that began at a certain stage? This question remains open for now.