Storyclover
Storyclover
Maya held a glass jar beneath the afternoon rain. The drops that filled it tasted clean and fresh, but the ocean beside her tasted sharply salty. She frowned at the waves. How could both waters come from the same sky?
Why Is the Ocean Salty When Rain Is Fresh?Rain and rivers slowly carry minerals from rocks into the sea, and evaporation leaves the dissolved salts behind.
1. Maya held a glass jar beneath the afternoon rain. The drops that filled it tasted clean and fresh, but the ocean beside her tasted sharply salty. She frowned at the waves. How could both waters come from the same sky?
2. Maya tasted a single raindrop from her fingertip. Then she touched the tide pool and tasted that water too. The rain was nearly plain. The tide pool made her tongue prick. She needed to find out where the salt had come from.
3. The next morning, Maya followed a stream downhill from the hills. Rainwater had gathered between the rocks, then joined together and begun to run. She filled her jar again. The stream looked clear, but it had already met the land.
4. At the streambank, Maya studied the rocks with her hand lens. Rainwater slipped into tiny cracks, touched minerals inside the stone, and carried away invisible bits. The rocks did not look smaller, but they were slowly giving something to the water.
5. The stream joined a river, and the river joined other rivers. Each one brought a tiny load of dissolved minerals from the rocks. No single raindrop carried much, but countless drops had been traveling this way for a very long time.
6. At last, the river reached the sea. Maya held river water in one vial and seawater in another. Both looked clear. Yet the sea had been collecting dissolved minerals from rivers all around the world, drop after drop.
7. Maya placed the three waters in shallow dishes and left them in the sun. The rainwater disappeared first. The river water followed. In the seawater dish, a thin sparkle remained at the bottom.
8. The sun had taken the water, but it had not taken the dissolved salts. They were left behind as tiny crystals. Maya finally saw the ocean's secret: water can leave, while salt stays.
9. Now Maya could trace the journey. Sunlight lifts water from the sea into the air. Rain falls fresh on the land, and rivers carry minerals from rocks back to the sea. Then the water evaporates again.
10. Rain and rivers slowly carry minerals from rocks into the sea, and evaporation leaves the dissolved salts behind. Maya listened to the fresh rain meet the salty waves, each drop beginning the journey again.
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