Is ocean water a solution or mixture?
That salt comes from mineral deposits that find their way to the ocean through the water cycle. Salts comprise about 3.5% of the mass of ocean water. Depending on specific location, the salt content or salinity can vary. Where ocean water mixes with fresh water, like at the mouth of a river, the salinity will be lower.
Physical mixing in the oceans ( thermohaline and wind-driven circulation) tends to homogenize the chemical composition of seawater. The opposing influences of physical mixing and of biogeochemical input and removal mechanisms result in a substantial variety of chemical distributions in the oceans.
Image by Alyssa Gundersen Seawater is a mixture of many different substances. Some of these substances can be observed when the water in seawater evaporates and leaves behind salt. Water, H 2 O, is a pure substance, a compound made of hydrogen and oxygen.
Pollution of ocean water is a major problem in some areas because many toxic substances easily mix with water. Figure 14.4: Ocean water is composed of many substances. The salts include sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, and calcium chloride.
Saltwater contains dissolved salt, so it’s a homogeneous mixture as we can’t separate salt from it directly. But it is also called a heterogeneous mixture because of the presence of impurities and insoluble components like sands, shells made up of calcium carbonate, and microbes in it.
Seawater is heterogeneous mixture, as each sample of seawater around the wound the world has its different salt concentration, mineral concentration and different types of sand with different size and structure.
Homogeneous Mixtures The salt water described above is homogeneous because the dissolved salt is evenly distributed throughout the entire salt water sample. Often it is easy to confuse a homogeneous mixture with a pure substance because they are both uniform.
Sea-water is classified as a mixture. Because, sea-water is made up of more than two substances, that is salt and water. The salt is dissolved in water and the salt is consider as solute and water is consider as solvent.
Seawater is a Solution (B) Seawater is a mixture of pure water and dissolved ionic substances. Water is a very good solvent. Solvents are liquids that dissolve other substances. Most of the water on earth, including the water in oceans, lakes, rivers, and ponds, contains many solutes.
