Why Is the Ocean Salty?

Lick a wave, yuck! Salty mouth! But the river up the mountain is sweet, not stout! So how does the OCEAN get so brined? Where do all the salty grains find a way inside?

It starts with rain on a rocky hill, Rain is fresh, but the rocks are full Of tiny minerals, locked in stone, And rain pulls some loose to call its own!

Dissolve! Dissolve! The rocks let go! A pinch of salt joins the river's flow! Dissolve! Dissolve! Down to the sea! The river drops its cargo for free!

Every river, every stream, Carries a salty little dream Down to the ocean, drop, drop, drop, A billion years and it can't stop!

Then the sun gets HOT and steals the wet! Up rise the clouds, but salt? Not yet! Water can fly, but salt cannot, So salt stays put in the ocean pot!

Evaporate! Evaporate! Up goes the steam! The salt stays home, beneath the gleam! Evaporate! Evaporate! Cloud sails away! The salty grains are HERE to stay!

How do we know? How do we know? Robert Boyle, three hundred years ago, Took seawater, weighed it on a scale, Boiled the water, left the salty trail!

Modern scientists check it again, They sip the rivers, they sip the main, They count the minerals leaving the land, And find it matches grain for grain!

Watch a salty puddle by the shore, The water shrinks, then it's no more, But where it sat? A crusty white, A tiny salt flat, packed up tight!

Dissolve! Dissolve! The rocks let go! A pinch of salt joins the river's flow! Evaporate! Evaporate! Cloud sails away! The salty ocean is HERE to stay!

So when you taste the salty sea, Every grain came down for free From a mountain miles and miles inland, Borrowed from a rock, dropped off in the sand!