Why is seawater salty, when water from the lake isn’t?
In: Earth Science
Starting with definitions, a lake is completely surrounded by land. It fills with water from rain, melting glaciers, and/or from the water table. A sea is a body of water that is largely surrounded by land, but is connected to the ocean. Think of the Mediterranean Sea or the South China Sea.
Now, it’s possible for a lake to be salty. The only one off the top of my head is the Dead Sea, which is actually a lake. What happens there is that are rivers flowing into the dead sea. Along the way, they dissolve salt and minerals from the surrounding area. The water evaporates from the sea, leaving behind the minerals and that’s how you get a salty lake.
For comparison, most lakes have an outlet. A river or stream where the water keeps moving, so those same minerals don’t build up. The dead sea doesn’t have an outlet.
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