How Do You Get Salt Out of the Ocean?
Salt is extracted from the ocean through several methods, primarily evaporation and desalination.
This time-tested technique mimics nature's process. Sunlight naturally evaporates seawater, leaving behind salt crystals. Human intervention accelerates this:
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Salt Pans/Solar Evaporation Ponds: Seawater is collected in shallow basins, and the sun's heat does the work. As the water evaporates, salt concentration increases until crystals form and are harvested. This is a low-energy, low-tech method practiced for centuries. Source: How to Make Your Own Sea Salt - Harvesting Nature and How to make salt from sea water - YouTube demonstrate this process.
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Boiling: Seawater can be boiled in containers. The water turns to steam (leaving salt behind), which can then be collected and condensed back into fresh water. Source: Why Don't We Get Our Drinking Water from the Ocean by Taking the ... and Desalination can make saltwater drinkable — but it won't solve the ... detail boiling as a desalination method, although it primarily focuses on obtaining fresh water.
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Freezing: A less common method involves freezing seawater. The ice formed is relatively fresh water, leaving behind a more concentrated salt solution. Source: How to make salt from sea water. : r/foraging
Desalination: Modern Technologies
Desalination uses advanced techniques to separate salt from water on a larger scale:
- Reverse Osmosis: This process forces saltwater through a semi-permeable membrane, allowing water molecules to pass while leaving salt behind. It's energy-intensive but produces large quantities of fresh water, and the brine (highly concentrated salt solution) byproduct contains the salt. [Source: Desalination is the removal of salt from seawater](Reference provided in the prompt)
In summary, obtaining salt from the ocean leverages either natural evaporation processes, accelerated through human intervention, or advanced technological methods like reverse osmosis which produce concentrated brine containing the extracted salt.
