Why aren’t rivers/estuaries/lakes etc salty like the sea ?
In: Planetary Science
Rivers/lakes/estuaries are mainly run off from rain fall. Rain is made from water vapor. When the water evaporates from the sea, it doesn’t take the salt with it. The run off collects salt that is in the ground though, thats probably how the sea got salty to begin with. In most areas there isnt that much salt near the surface anymore, so you only get trace amounts. But if the water collects in a lake with no outlet, it begins to collect that trace salt. As the water evaporates the salt builds up over time. This is how you get salt lakes like the Great Salt Lake in Utah and the Dead Sea in the Middle East.
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