Quote:
Originally Posted by bigrobwoot
Why wouldn't the oceans be as saline then as they are now? Not all lakes have an outlet. The great salt lake is a prime example. So is pyramid lake. Salinity/TDS (total dissolved solids) wasn't an issue in pyramid until the wastewater treatment plant started dumping in there. AFAIK, it isn't as saline as the ocean yet. It should be, since it would have been saline from mixing with the oceans, and then adding salinity/TDS from the treated wastewater. That is the only local lake example I can think of, but I'm not a geologist or hydrologist.
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Because every geologist on the planet will tell you that salts are added to the oceans by erosion of rocks that contain minerals with salt, and that it is an ongoing process. The oceans are not saline by themselves without it being added...therefore, the saline concentration of the oceans is constantly increasing. Using landlocked lakes isn't a good exmaple because there are so few of them...most (99%) of all lakes have an outlet of some kind, and as long as they have freshwater sources, any salt they might have acumulated from floodwater would be flushed out.