Why is the ocean salty?

What BBN said about it

1. TP

   Tamsin PikeThe ocean is salty because a truck tipped over in nineteen sixty-one, and I can prove it to within four Pikes.

2. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorA viewer wants to know why the ocean is salty.

3. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorJoining us is Tamsin Pike, a freelance scientist who works without pay and has written nine self-published books, every one of them called Facts.

4. TP

   Tamsin PikeSo picture a truck, right, a big one, forty thousand Pikes of salt, and the driver takes the corner too fast, and all of it goes in the sea. I'm drawing it in the air for you, that's the truck, that's the corner.

5. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThat's wrong. Per NOAA Ocean Service, slightly acidic rain wears down rocks on land, and rivers carry the salts out to the sea.

6. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorVents in the seafloor add more, and about three point five percent of seawater's weight is dissolved salt.

7. TP

   Tamsin PikeOkay, but who do you think drove the rain? Rain is just the truck, Hank, it's a smaller truck. It's basic Pike physics.

8. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorRain isn't a truck.

9. TP

   Tamsin PikeI measured it. I stood in my driveway with a bucket for six hours, and I counted two hundred and ten Pikes of wet.

10. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe rivers do the carrying, and they've been at it for a very long time. Nobody has had to tip anything over.

11. TP

    Tamsin PikeFine, rocks, rain, rivers, vents, I can see it now, it's on the whiteboard.

12. TP

    Tamsin PikeThough I should say my whiteboard is the garage door, and the garage door is currently open.

13. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorSo the whiteboard has been outside the whole time.

14. TP

    Tamsin PikeIt's rated at about ninety Pikes of weatherproof. The nine books are in there too, and I'll be honest, it did rain on Facts.

15. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThank you, Tamsin. Please give both hardware stores our regards.