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Organisms That Make Ocean Salt

Salt has played an important role in ancient and current history. Ancient Egyptians used salt to mummify the dead, the Chinese used salt as early as 2700 B.C. in pharmacology, and the Roman empire used salt to their advantage during trade. Today, salt is a seasoning staple and an essential part of various diets. When some people think of salt, they think of it as having come from the ocean, made from ocean organisms. While salt is, in fact, not made from ocean organisms, salt's ties with the sea are indeed vast and important.

Salt in the Ocean
- Salt from the ocean can create deposits and will build up to create salty spires.
  
  Salt is a mineral composed of sodium chloride. While it occurs naturally in the environment, salt can be found in vast amounts in the ocean. In terms of weight, 2.7 percent of ocean water is sodium chloride. Most of this sea salt originated over thousands of years from the gradual erosion and weathering of rock and the escape of gasses from beneath the ocean floor. The sea also contains underground salt deposits, which often times contains ancient microorganisms, which might have fueled speculation that ocean organisms can create salt.
Salt and Ocean Animals
- Salt has a great impact on ocean organisms' evolution and survival.
  
  While ocean organisms do not make salt, salt has a great impact on ocean animals to thrive. Crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters and shrimp use calcium salts to help built their rigid bodies. Salt has also affected the evolution of many animals. Fish swallow sea water and filter the salt through their gills, while sea gulls drink sea water and remove the salt by snorting it back through their nostrils.
Types of Salt Production
- The first known underground salt mines were created about 8,000 years ago in China.
  
  Salt can be obtained in two primary ways. Mechanical mining requires tapping into a salt deposit and creating a massive cavern within the salt deposit, large enough for mining vehicles to enter. Salt is scraped from the walls and transported back to the surface. Another way to obtain salt is through solutional mining. Salt is extracted in the form of brine and is then evaporated. Through the use of evaporation, salt can be refined into different kinds of salts, such as sodium, magnesium and calcium salts.
Salt's Uses Today
- Salt has more than 14,000 known uses.
  
  Salt isn't just the seasoning sitting on your table. It has many uses outside the kitchen. In fact, the leading use of salt in the world is for the chlor-alkali chemical industry. This industry is a provider of clean water, soaps, medication, cosmetics, electronics and more. Salt is also necessary for the textile, glass and rubber industries.

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