Question

Why oceans donor freeze? Give reasons.

Answer 1

If the temperature is cold enough, ocean water does freeze. The polar ice cap at earth's North Pole is a giant slab of frozen ocean water.
But it doesn't generally freezes like other water forms due to the given reasons:
1. Salt

The high concentration of salt in ocean water lowers its freezing point from 32° F (0° C) to 28° F (-2° C). As a result, the ambient temperature must reach a lower point in order to freeze the ocean than to freeze freshwater lakes.
2. Ocean currents

The gravitational pull of the moon, earth's spinning motion, and thermal convection combine to create large-scale flows of ocean water known as ocean currents. This constant motion of the ocean water helps keep the water molecules from freezing into the somewhat stationary state of ice crystals.
3.High volume

The larger the volume of water, the more heat has to be removed in order to freeze it. A teaspoon of water placed in the freezer will become completely solid long before a gallon jug of water.
4. Earth's internal heating

As miners are well aware, the earth gets hotter and not colder as you dig straight down, despite the fact that you are getting farther away from the warm sunlight. The reason for this is that the earth has its own internal heat source which is driven primarily by the nuclear decay of elements inside earth's mantle.
Although the temperature of the air at an ocean's surface may be freezing, the temperature of the water deep in the ocean is significantly warmer due to internal heating.


This combination of salt, ocean currents, high volume, and internal heating keeps most of the ocean in liquid form even during cold winters.



Hope this helps :)
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