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11. Variations in the Properties of Sea Water

1. Introduction
2.  Salt in Seawater?
3. Ions of Salt
4. Source of the Salt?
5. Salinity Variability
6.Salinity & Precipitation
7. Salinity Summary
8. Calculating Salinity
9. Ocean Temperature
10. Solar Radiation
11. Properties
12. Light Penetration
13. Temperature
14. Thermocline
15. Density
16. Layering

Used with Permission of Matthias Tomczak ©Copyright 1997

The turquoise color in the graph indicates the wide range of salinity, and especially temperature, in 99% of the global ocean.

The small green box shows that 75% of the global ocean has a very limited range of temperature and salinity.

• In other words, 24% of the ocean has a wide range of temperature and salinity, whereas 75% of sea water has a very narrow range.

• What is the temperature of 75% of the world's oceans?

Yes, it is very COLD! How come?

Why should most of the ocean be so cold, when much of the ocean, at least at the surface, is warm?

Send to Don Reed
Department of Geology
San Jose State University

 

To examine this question, let's see how far solar radiation penetrates into the ocean