RE: Deep Seas and Internal Waves
January 9, 2015 at 7:54 pm
(This post was last modified: January 9, 2015 at 8:07 pm by Rayaan.)
(January 9, 2015 at 6:42 pm)Lucanus Wrote: Do salty water and plain water mix? They do. Maybe not evidently, but they do.
That is not always the case, however. See the answer below:
Quote:Fresh water is lighter than salt water. Therefore, fresh water "floats" on top of salt water. This principle becomes extremely important when considering the drilling of a well in order to tap into the ground water of any island. The weight of the rain water that percolates into the ground depresses the salt water beneath it forming a profile that has the appearance of a lens. This is called the Ghyben-Herzberg lens. The principle of this relationship was discovered independently by a Dutch scientist named Baden-Ghyben and a German scientist named Herzberg.
The underground boundary that separates the fresh water layer from the salt water is not a sharp boundary line. In reality, this boundary is a transition zone of brackish water (fresh/salt mixture). This is caused by seasonal fluctuations in rainfall, tidal action, and the amount of water being withdrawn either by humans or by natural discharge.
Salt Water vs. Fresh Water - Ghyben-Herzberg Lens
"And it is He Who has let free the two bodies of flowing water, one fresh and sweet, and the other salty and bitter, and He placed between them a barrier and prohibiting partition." (Surah 25:53)
Edit: Here's another proof of this phenomenon filmed in Planet Earth:
