Geochemical mass balance dissolved chemical inflow and outflow from the ocean

1 Mass balance between input from land and authigenic 

Heat flow and seawater convection at hydrothermal regions 51 

3 Estimates of water chemistry changes on the ridge flanks 55 

Classification of the chemical constituents of seawater into conservative, bioactive and adsorbed (Chapter 1) revealed much about the processes that control concentration distributions in seawater of the latter two categories, but little about the conservative elements. Concentrations of the elements that make up most of the salinity of the oceans provide clues to the mechanisms that control their sources and sinks. Thus, the chemical perspective of oceanography revealed by conservative element concentrations is about processes that occur at the ocean boundaries weathering reactions on land, authigenic mineral formation in marine sediments and reactions with the crust at hydrothermal areas. The amount of time some of the dissolved constituents remain in solution before they are removed chemically is very long, suggesting the possibility for chemical equilibrium between seawater and the minerals in the ocean 

A schematic representation of the sources and sinks of the dissolved chemical constituents of seawater. Sources are from rivers and wind, and sinks are authigenic mineral formation. 

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Geochemical mass balance dissolved chemical inflow and outflow from the ocean... 

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