why is the ocean salty, and how did it get that way?
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This is an excellent question and remarkably is one of the first questions that caused prior to question whether the world had always existed or if it had a finite age.
Consider:
Either the ocean had always been salty, or it has accrued the salt. These are the only options.
If it were always salty, then why is it not becoming less salty as all the freshwater rivers flow into it? If it accrued the salt, then it it must have been fresh at once point in time and continued to get saltier. These are the only 2 options. And both logically lead to the conclusion that there must be something maintaining the salt levels, otherwise we’d either have only fresh water oceans, or oceans of just plain salt.
Neither of those outcomes exist. Ergo, Earth’s existence in the past is finite, and it hasn’t existed forever.
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