If water flowing over continents in rivers is what concentrates salt in our ocean, would a planet that has always been covered in water just be freshwater? The water is just sitting there, not eroding through salts.

  • PunnyName@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Continents and the surface are just areas of the planet that don’t have water covering them up.

    If Earth’s oceans rose only a few miles up, it would be a water planet, but these things would still exist. Including plate tectonics and the circulation of magma / molten core.

    Water circulates due to pressure, temperature, and impurities, each having their own positive feedback loop into the system before it finds a balance.

    • HotDayBreeze@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 day ago

      Sure but once a continental plate is flooded, isn’t it by definition an oceanic plate at that point? A continent only exists if it isn’t flooded.