If water flowing over continents in rivers is what concentrates salt in our ocean, would a planet that has always been covered in water just be freshwater? The water is just sitting there, not eroding through salts.
If water flowing over continents in rivers is what concentrates salt in our ocean, would a planet that has always been covered in water just be freshwater? The water is just sitting there, not eroding through salts.
Even fresh water has stuff dissolved in it, just in lesser amounts. Pure water isn’t a naturally occurring thing that lasts long. There are two components, water’s polarity which grabs things that are available, and how water in a large system that is getting energy isn’t going to stay still and “sit there”.
Something interesting I learned the other day in following the recent launch of the Europa Clipper. One of the things they want to explore is how as Europa moves through the huge magnetic field of Jupiter it induces a magnetic field of its own. Why is this relevant? It’s one bit of evidence that the waters under the ice have salts dissolved in them, giving them conductivity to produce this field. So even there water is not “fresh”.
That is super interesting! I hope the Clipper gives us a definitive answer!