Comment on If a planet was completely covered in water, wouldn't it all be freshwater?
HotDayBreeze@lemmy.world 2 months agoI was trying to figure out how much underwater erosion there is but if you compare the sandy and silty bottom of the ocean to like, Utah, it seems like continental erosion is orders of magnitude more significant.
Conversely, we know oceans deposit all sorts of stuff at their bottoms, which makes me think there is a small amount of salt being deposited. Would that cancel out significant underwater erosion?
Similarly, if underwater erosion was a big deal, wouldn’t old lakes (in geological time) be notably saltier than young lakes? But the only salty lakes we have primarily lose all their water through evaporation, basically ultra concentrated river water.
SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 2 months ago
There’s also heat exchange so you’ll have deep sea vents where there could be all kinds of caustic stuff and/or minerals.
So it wouldn’t necessarily be fresh even if that stuff wasn’t saline
neatchee@lemmy.world 2 months ago
For those following along: SEAWATER IS NOT SALINE EITHER. Just making sure we’re clear on everything
SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I was thinking of the term salinity.
neatchee@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Hahaha I figured something like but couldn’t resist the opportunity :D