• Question: Is salt water less dense than fresh water? Does this effect your research?

    Asked by to Ben, Emily on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by , .
    • Photo: Ben Butler

      Ben Butler answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      It’s actually the other way around… saltwater is more dense than seawater. The more salt you add, the more dense the water gets. Freshwater weight around 997 grams per litre, whereas seawater weighs around 1025 grams per litre.

      This difference doesn’t affect my research too much, but I do have to include it in my calculations. Here’s a link to a really cool video that shows you what happens when really cold salty seawater drains down out of sea ice in Antarctica… http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/15835017

    • Photo: Emily Hayward

      Emily Hayward answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Hi Hutch,

      Great question! Salt water is actually more dense than freshwater….it weighs around 28 grams more per litre. In my research currently I only look at freshwater, however if I used seawater I would just use a slightly different number to do calculations.

      Many other properties of salt water vs freshwater usually have a bigger effect than the density for example in my research the presence of salt would block my filters more quickly, and also lead to corrosion (rusting) of my equipment. In lots of companies they have big problems with rust due to sea water.

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