How do icebergs lose their salt?
Answers
Icebergs do not have any salt to begin with. Icebergs are not pieces of frozen ocean water. Rather, icebergs are frozen chunks of fresh water that began their life on land. It all starts when snow falls in a region of land that is too cold for the snow to melt. Over time, the non-salty snow builds up on the ground. Without temperatures warm enough to melt the snow, it piles up so high that it starts to crush under its own weight. The crushing force of gravity fuses the non-salty snow crystals into a giant slab of non-salty ice known as a glacier. This process is very slow and takes a long time. Gravity not only pulls the snow down into the ice, it also pulls the ice downhill. Often "downhill" means "towards the ocean". Very slowly, the giant slab of ice slides downhill to the ocean. Once it reaches the ocean, it just keeps going like a train with no brakes. A glacier is so big that just the very edge of it slides out over the ocean. Because ice floats on water, the edge of a glacier has no problem just sitting there, floating on the ocean.