What Does Density Plays A Key Role In Interpreting Water?

Imagine water layers floating over each other. This may seem impossible because many may wonder how a liquid can stay on top of a liquid without mixing. However, the phenomenon occurring is indeed possible! Density plays a key role in layering water. Density is basically the state of being compact, and can be changed by factors such temperature or dissolved salt. There are some real-life examples in nature where water is blanketing water, and the layers are not blending with each other. This may appear as an effect of putting together water with different salinities. Salt, density, and temperature play essential roles to impacting the traits of water worldwide. To discover more on this unbelievable topic, one needs to dig deeper on the water

The word, thermohaline, is broken into two parts. The first is thermo which means temperature and haline stands for salinity. Therefore, water’s density is controlled by two factors- temperature and salinity. A common term for thermohaline circulation is the global conveyer belt. In some polar regions, due to temperature drops, the ocean gets cold, forming sea ice. When sea ice is materialized, all the salt is left behind, causing the surrounding water to get saltier. The water becomes denser than before because the salt content has increased and starts to sink. Surface water is pulled up to substitute the sinking water. But that gradually becomes colder and saltier, and the cycle repeats itself, starting the deep-ocean currents in the global conveyer belt. This is much similar to icebergs, glaciers, and ice shelves. The key difference between sea ice and icebergs, glaciers, and ice shelves is sea ice is made from saltwater whereas the rest are formed by freshwater. Also, sea ice originates in the water. Icebergs, glaciers, and ice shelves are made on land yet float in the ocean. Thermohaline circulation is much the reason of how our arctic and antarctic regions are