I was watching a documentary about a team that was planning to go down to the lowest point on the ocean floor somewhere in the arctic.
While the gentleman in the sub was going down, the narrator stated “at this depth, the water outside the submarine is below freezing”.
Soo… why is it not frozen? Does it have to do with the salt content in the water?
ELI5, thanks!
In: Earth Science
Because its not below freezing, you’re right that if it was below freezing then it should turn into ice
Water in the deep ocean is very close to 4C always. Water is a bit weird in that it expands when it tries to freeze so water need the freezing point *floats* on water slightly above the freezing point rather than *sinking* like you would expect
Water is densest at 4C so if the water gets any cooler than 4C it’ll rise and mix with the warmer water. If its any warmer than 4C it’ll also rise. The end result is that water at peak density sinks and displaces any water that isn’t at peak density so any deep portion of the ocean is at just about the same temperature regardless of the temperature of the water at the surface
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