Could seawater be under saturation and acidic? Original Research Article

The statistical treatment of more than 1500 water analyses indicated that the natural water during its hydrologic cycle can dissolve much higher amounts of minerals than those found in seawater and able to keep it in solution under normal physiochemical conditions. The present study proved that the dissolution of minerals in natural water show relative and variable solubility as salinity, chloride in particular, increasing. Several statistical relationships were obtained and many equations had developed for predicting the natural upper concentration limits (UCL) of dissolving calcite, gypsum and silica at any given chloride, this is in order to conclude realistic and descriptive mineral saturation factors. A similar approach had also applied to explore the suitability of the currently used reference pH-scale. It was found that the currently measured pH against the fixed highest dissociation constant of zero salinity water may lead to erroneous conclusions, while measuring against the natural lower water dissociation rate that changes considerably with increasing salinity and decreasing hydration number is more reasonable. It is obvious that the fixed universal constants are not suitable bases for hydrochemical interpretation. This new perspective offers better understanding of the natural water dissolving capacity. The answer to the heading question is yes, the seawater is under saturation and slightly acidic.