Write difference between ocean water and river water
Answers
POWER GENERATION
Oceans (Marine Energy):- Ocean thermal energy, tidal energy, wave energy.
Rivers:- Hydro-electricity (generated through damming a flowing river or stream).
TRANSPORTATION
Oceans:- Sea transportation, in which goods and passengers move through oceans and seas using ships, boats, streamers and launchers etc. This sea transportation plays a major role in International Trade.
Rivers:- Usually inland navigation within a territory of a state (country). It is useful to transport cheap and heavy bulk between two places within a country, e.g. ore, coal, timber etc.
RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Oceans:- Whale (/wildlife) watching, underwater diving, canoeing and kayaking, parasailing, surfing etc.
Rivers:- Fishing, river rafting, fishing, boating, rowing, birding etc.
FOOD RESOURCES
Oceans:- Mainly fishes and shellfish (molluscs, echinoderms and crustaceans). Also edible sea plants such as sea-weed and microalgae in few countries (Japan is the best example). More than 90% fishes of the world are captured from Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
Rivers:- Mainly fishes at a very small scale. But rivers indirectly help in agricultural production through irrigation and fertile alluvium.
TERRITORIAL POLITICS
Oceans:- UNCLOS (1982) as universal legal document on the sea has defined internal waters, territorial waters, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone continental shelf and open sea. Under its provisions, coastal States have sovereign rights in a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) with respect to natural resources and certain economic activities, and exercise jurisdiction over marine science research and environmental protection.
Rivers:- Rivers can serve the purpose of political boundaries (but very few countries today accept rivers as political boundaries because of the changing volume and channels and other associated problems with rivers), e.g. Mekong river forms the boundary between Laos and Thailand.
MAJOR ADVANTAGES
Transport and trade through oceans:-
Ocean transport is usually the cheapest of all forms of transport
Except for fog and floating ice, and occasionally stormy weather which may hinder progress, ocean-going vessels have fewer physical obstacles to surmount than those which so often handicap overland transport
During more recent times ships have shown an even greater specialisation and several distinct types of commercial vessels gradually evolved. Recent years have witnessed a tremendous growth in the size of tankers, a number of which now exceed 5, 00,000 tons dead-weight.
Transport and trade through rivers:-
There is no track to lay or maintain, although dredging may be necessary in the case of natural waterways.
They may provide the only practicable routes, e.g. in very difficult, mountainous country or in areas of very dense tropical forest.
Saltwater is denser than freshwater due to the sodium chloride dissolved in it. This means that a specific volume of salt water is heaver than the same volume of freshwater. Warmer salt water is less dense than colder saltwater, which results in the colder water sinking to the ocean floor.
Saltwater, which is found in earth’s oceans and seas, is quite different from the freshwater contained within lakes, rivers and streams across the globe. Plant and animal species are adapted to live in one type of water or the other, but few can thrive in both. Some species are able to tolerate what is called brackish water, which results when freshwater from a river or stream drains into a saltwater body and lowers the saltwater’s salinity.
SALINITY
Perhaps the biggest difference is in the name itself. Saltwater contains salt, or sodium chloride. Freshwater may contain small amounts of salt, but not enough to be considered saltwater. Ocean water has an average salinity of 3.5 percent. This means that there are 35 grams of salt dissolved in every liter of seawater. The salinity lends itself to the other differences between ocean and freshwater and also poses a challenge for the organisms that thrive in saltwater. It is believed that the salt in ocean water comes from salt leaching out of the ocean floor as well as salt that is carried out of rivers and streams.
DENSITY
Saltwater is denser than freshwater due to the sodium chloride dissolved in it. This means that a specific volume of salt water is heaver than the same volume of freshwater. Warmer salt water is less dense than colder saltwater, which results in the colder water sinking to the ocean floor. While colder water is denser, when water freezes into ice, it becomes less dense and floats on the surface.
FREEZING POINT
Both the freezing and boiling points of ocean water differ from freshwater, but only the freezing point is of concern in nature. The average freezing point for ocean water is -2 degrees Celsius, although it can be even lower than that if the salt content is higher or the water is under pressure. The typical freezing point for freshwater is 0 degrees Celsius