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Six Most Abundant Elements Dissolved in Ocean Water

It is important to know the composition of ocean water because our lives intertwine with Earth's oceans at many levels. Families vacation near Earth's many oceans and seas. We swim, fish and play in ocean waters, and we eat the fish and sometimes swallow the water. Various salts are a large part of our ocean's chemical composition. Swallowing a large amount of ocean water, or any fluid, that is either lower or higher than 9 percent, or 9 parts per thousand salt, will result in inevitable damage to our bodies' cells. The composition and concentration of Earth's ocean salt has been found by scientists to be constant and has not changed over the last 1.5 billion years.

  1. Six Chemicals of Ocean Water

    • Our oceans consist of an abundance of elements, including hydrogen and oxygen, or H2O. The majority of ocean elements are various salts. The elements that compose about 99 percent of the salt found in ocean water are chlorine (NaCl) at 55 percent, sodium (NaCl) at 30.6 percent, sulfate (S) at 7.7 percent, magnesium (Mg) at 3.65 percent, calcium (Ca) at 1.17 percent, potassium (K) at 1.13 percent and 0.6 percent other salts.

    Salinity in the World

    • Salinity, or salt concentration, is greatest in warm, tropical surface waters -- for instance, the waters near the equator and the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and North Africa. This is because in warmer waters there is a higher level of evaporation than precipitation. Salinity is lower where there are large inputs of freshwater from rivers. These areas lie mostly above the North American and Asian continents.

    Natural Elements in Ocean Water

    • One amazing scientific fact is that every naturally occurring element has also been detected in the ocean's waters. Some that occur only in very small concentrations are gold, iron, lead and protactinium. Two sources of these elements are the weathering of igneous rocks on Earth's surface, which can be carried to the oceans by rivers, and rocks below the surface, near Earth's core, that reach the surface over an expanse of time.

    Other Substances in Ocean Water

    • Concentrations of other substances, such as gases and nutrients, vary geographically and with depth, most often due to uptake and release by organisms. Photosynthesis provides a source for oxygen in ocean waters. Oxygen evaporates at the surface and is also consumed through respiration by marine animals just below the surface. Carbon dioxide is also a part of this process; it is consumed during photosynthesis and released during respiration. Like oxygen, it can also be released into the atmosphere.

    Nutrients Found in Ocean Water

    • The decay of ocean creatures, like starfish, provides needed nutrients.

      Major nutrients found in ocean water include nitrate, phosphate and silicate, which act as fertilizers for plants below the water's surface and are found in greater concentrations at deeper levels. The decay of plant and animal remains that sink to greater depths adds to the supply of nutrients.

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