Mysterious changes in ocean salt spur NASA expedition

[NickB79]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57509387/mysterious-changes-in-ocean-salt-spur-nasa-expedition/

(LiveScience) Over the past 50 years, the salty parts of the oceans have become saltier and the fresh regions have become fresher, and the degree of change is greater than scientists can explain.

Researchers are heading out into one particularly salty ocean region, in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, in the hopes of better understanding what drives variation in salinity in the upper ocean.

Ultimately, they hope, research like this will offer insight on the dynamics behind the dramatic changes in the ocean's salt content.

Many oceanographers have a hunch about what is going on: Climate change, Ray Schmitt, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, told journalists during a news conference Wednesday (Sept. 5).

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[phantom power]

2. that sounds like a fruitful research project

[nebenaube]

3. I don't know why this seems like a mystery...

Precipitation comes from evaporation, evaporation leaves the salt behind; ergo, eons of polar ice accumulation currently melting is the source of fresh water mixing with ocean currents while noting that diffusion occurs at a fixed rate between concentrations in mixing currents.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Taht's what I was gonna say, too.