Cyclic salt is

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

that is carried by the wind when it comes in contact with breaking waves. It is estimated that more than 300 million tons of cyclic salt is deposited on the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

's surface each year, and it is considered to be a significant factor in the

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine i ...

content of the Earth's river water. In general, cyclic salt deposits are lower at sites further inland and are most abundant along the shoreline, although this pattern varies depending on the given environmental conditions.Clarke, Frank Wigglesworth. "The data of geochemistry," in Issue 491 of U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin. (Government Printing Office, 1911), 138-139. Use of the term "cyclic" refers to the cycle in which the salt moves from sea to land and is then washed by rainwater back to the sea. The salt (and other solid matter) cannot evaporate as water does. Instead it leaves the ocean surface in fine droplets of drop impacts or bubble bursts. Wave-crests and other turbulence form foam. When drops splash or bubbles burst, fine droplets of solute are ejected from the water or bubble surface into the air. Some of the droplets are small enough to allow the water to evaporate before it falls back into the sea, leaving in the air a mote of the solid residue light enough to stay suspended by

Brownian motion Brownian motion, or pedesis (from grc, πήδησις "leaping"), is the random motion of particles suspended in a medium (a liquid or a gas). This pattern of motion typically consists of random fluctuations in a particle's position insi ...

and be carried away on the wind.

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