THE 



JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY 



SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, igos 



THE MINERAL MATTER OF THE SEA, WITH SOME 

 SPECULATIONS AS TO THE CHANGES WHICH HAVE 

 BEEN INVOLVED IN ITS PRODUCTION 



ROLLIN D. SALISBURY 

 The University of Chicago 



It has been calculated that if the salt now in the sea were precipi- 

 tated, it would make something like 3,500,000 cubic miles. If to 

 this be added all the other mineral matter in solution in the sea 

 water, the amount would be swollen to about 4,500,000 cubic miles. 1 

 This amount of mineral matter is equal in amount to nearly one- 

 fifth of all the material in all lands above the sea at the present time; 

 that is, equal to all the material in North America, Europe, and Aus- 

 tralia, and most of the islands of the sea. If the mineral matter of 

 the sea were precipitated on the ocean bottom, it would make a layer 

 about 175 feet deep. If it were precipitated and concentrated in 

 the shallow water of the ocean about the borders of the continents, 

 building up the bottom to sea-level, this amount of mineral matter 

 would add something like 19,000,000 square miles to the land — an 

 area equal to about one-third that of all existing land. Most of this 

 mineral matter in solution in the sea has probably come from the 

 rocks of the land and of the sea bottom, chiefly the former. 



Amount 0} mineral matter extracted from the sea. — These figures 

 may perhaps give some idea of the amount of mineral matter in solu- 

 tion in the sea, but they give no more than a hint of the importance 



1 Scottish Geographical Magazine, Vol. XXI, p. 133. 



469 



