noun
definition
The quality of being saline.
definition
The concentration of salt in a solution.
Examples of salinity in a Sentence
The average salinity of the whole surface of the oceans may be taken as 34.5 per mille.
The comparatively fresh equatorial belt of water, has a salinity of 35.
Observations in temperature and salinity have only been taken during summer.
They are connected with the ocean by narrow straits, the salinity of the water contained in them differs in a marked degree from that of the ocean, and the tidal waves are of small amplitude.
Two other facts are totally opposed to the origin of all the salinity of the oceans from the concentration of the washings of the land.
The vertical distribution of salinity has only recently been investigated systematically, as the earlier expeditions were not equipped with altogether trustworthy apparatus for collecting water samples at great depths.
The causes of difference of salinity are mainly meteorological.
But in March the temperature, as also the salinity, was tolerably uniform throughout all the layers of water.
In each of the three oceans there are two maxima of salinity-one in the north, the other in the south tropical belt, separated by a zone of minimum salinity in the equatorial region, and giving place poleward to regions of still lower salinity.
In the tropical and subtropical belts of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans south of the equator the salinity diminishes rapidly from the surface downwards, and at 500 fathoms reaches a minimum of 34.3 or 34.4 p e r mille; after that it increases again to 800 fathoms, where it is almost 34.7 or 34.8, and this salinity holds good to the bottom, even to the greatest depths, as was first shown by the " Gauss " and afterwards by the " Planet " between Durban and Ceylon.
Ruppin to increase with the salinity.
In the North Atlantic a strong submarine current flowing outward from the Mediterranean leaves the Strait of Gibraltar with a salinity of 38 per mille, and can be traced as far as Madeira and the Bay of Biscay in depths of from 600 to 2800 fathoms, still with a salinity of 35.6 per mille, whereas off the Azores at equal depths the salinity is from 0.5 to 0.7 per mille less.
Our knowledge of the Pacific in this respect is still very imperfect, but it appears to be less salt than the other oceans at depths below 800 fathoms, as on the surface, the salinity at considerable depths being 34.6 to 34.7 in the Western part of the ocean, and about 34.4 to 34.5 in the eastern, so that, although the data are by no means satisfactory, it is impossible to assign a mass-salinity of more than 34.7 per mille for the whole body of Pacific water.
The belt of equatorial minimum salinity corresponds with the excessively rainy belt of calms and of the equatorial countercurrent, the salinity diminishing towards the east.
The penetration of warmth from the surface is effected by direct radiation, and by convection by particles rendered dense by evaporation increasing salinity.
The vertical distribution of temperature ' in the open ocean is much better known than that of salinity.
The differences of salinity support this method, and, especially in the northern European seas, often prove a sharper criterion of the boundaries than temperature itself; this is especially the case at the entrance to the Baltic. Evidence drawn from drift-wood, wrecks or special drift bottles is less distinct but still interesting and often useful; this method of investigation includes the use of icebergs as indicators of the trend of currents and also of plankton, the minute swimming or drifting organisms so abundant at the surface of the sea.
The existence of a layer of water of low salinity at a depth of 500 fathoms in the tropical oceans of the southern hemisphere is to be referred to this action of the melting ice of the Antarctic regions.
Hence a strong surface current sets inwards through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb and Gibraltar, while an undercurrent flows outwards, raising the temperature and salinity of the ocean for a long distance beyond the straits.
Modern oceanography has found means to calculate quantitatively the circulatory movements produced by wind and the distribution of temperature and salinity not only at the surface but in deep water.
The surface waters of the North Pacific are relatively fresh, the salinity being on the whole much lower than in the other great Salinity.
North of this salinity diminishes steadily, especially to the north-west, the Sea of Okhotsk showing the lowest salinity observed in any part of the globe.
South of the Tropic of Capricorn the isohalines run nearly east and west, salinity diminishing quickly to the Southern Ocean.
The bottom waters have almost uniformly a salinity of 34.8 per mille, corresponding closely with the bottom waters of the South Atlantic, but fresher than those of the North Atlantic.
The load of silt borne down stream by the river finally, after many halts on the way, reaches the waters of the Gulf, where the decrease of velocity, aided by the salinity of the sea water, causes the formation of a remarkable delta, leaving less aggraded areas as shallow lakes (Lake Pontchartrain on the east, and Grand Lake on the west of the river).
In fact the salinity of the Caspian is only three-eights of that of the ocean.
In the northern section, which receives the copious volumes brought down by the Volga, Ural and Terek, the salinity is so slight (only 0.0075% in the surface layers) that the water is quite drinkable, its specific gravity being not higher than 1.0016.
In the middle section the salinity of the surface layers increases to o or 5%, though it is of course greater along the shores.
The salinity of the water is much less than that of the ocean, containing only 1.05% of salt, and the lake freezes every year for a great distance from its shores.
The salinity of the waters is relatively great, the highest recorded being 42.7 per mille (Gulf of Suez), and the lowest 36.2 (Perim harbour).
From the observations of salinity it is inferred that a surface current flows inwards to the Red Sea in the eastern channel of the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb, while a current of very salt water flows outward to the Indian Ocean, through the western channel, at a depth of 50 to loo fathoms from the surface.
Within certain definite limits of depth, temperature and salinity, the only requirement is a suitable place for attachment.
The saltest surface water is found in (a) the Arabian Sea and (b) along a belt extending from West Australia to South Africa, the highest salinity in this belt occurring at the Australian end.
South of the belt salinity falls quickly as latitude increases, while to the north of it, in the monsoon region, the surface water is very fresh off the African coast and to the north-east.
Little is known with certainty about the distribution of salinity in the depths, the number of trustworthy observations available being still very small.
This fact is probably due partly to the actual intrusion of warm water from the Mascarene current east of Madagascar, and partly to the circumstance that the different temperatures of the waters are so compensated by their differences of salinity that they have almost precisely the same specific gravity in situ.
In the great basins and hollows from Rugen to the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland the upper layers of water, from 30 to 70 metres (16 to 38 fathoms) in thickness, have almost the same salinity throughout.
The "North Sea" water, of 34 to 35 pro male salinity, does not appear at the surface in the Skagerrak, except as a strip along part of the coast of Jutland, but it is always found as an undercurrent overlying the oceanic water.
The bank-water of 32 to 34 pro male salinity is found all along the continental coast of the North Sea and North Atlantic, and it may therefore enter the Skagerrak either from the North Sea or from the north along the coast of Norway.
Salinity is therefore a major factor in the density driven global scale thermohaline circulation.
Widewater Salinity Page 31 December 2002 Six little dabchicks (=Little Grebes) are spotted repeatedly diving beneath the flooded Widewater Lagoon.
However, there are regions where temperature and/or salinity differences between water masses result in stratification.
The water salinity; The lagoon shows a unique salinity gradient from Smallmouth to Abbotsbury.
These include examples of fully marine salinity, tide-swept sandbanks and relatively sheltered sandbanks.
A salinity of 50% of natural seawater, about 1.7% is recommended.
The lagoon now appears to be full strength seawater at a salinity of 35 (ppt ).
Although starry stonewort appears to tolerate slightly saline conditions, its performance may decline if salinity levels increase.
Due to the vertical stratification of salinity the sun's heat is stored in this layer, resulting in high summer surface temperatures.
Observations of salinity in the depths of the western Mediterranean are very deficient, but the average is probably between 38 o and 38 5.
The study of marine life has in recent years become more general, and has become associated with very precise investigations into the chemical composition of sea-water, changes in chemical equilibrium, the effect of variations in salinity and temperature, the processes set up by marine bacteria, and so on.