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by The Hammer on August 18th, 2005

The Hammer

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Can life exist without a body of salt water?

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  • by anonymous on March 24th, 2006

    anonymous

    The question you ask referrs to water that contains more than just salt. Sea Water contains a host of other elements. Life needs certain elements to function properly. If all the water in the world was not salt water but instead was exactly like the fresh water of the Great Lakes, the human race would be stunted. Iodine, plentiful in ocean creatures, is lacking in areas far to the inland. Iodine is an essential element, and if it is deficent the thyroid will swell, and the idodine containing hormones will not be present, leading to abnormal developement in growing children.

    Life can exist as long as:

    1. Temperatures are within an acceptable range.
    2. The elements needed for life exist in a proper phase, and in the right compounds.
    3. Radioactivity is not too high.
    4. Osmotic, Atmospheric, and/or water pressure is not to high or low.
    5. Harmful compounds do not exist in to high of a quantity (like free radicals, posions)
    6. Pre-existing life begets living organisms.

    The sea water contains many elements and compounds needed by living organisms. While sure, you could raise an organism in a lab, in a closed world with no sea water, it wouldn't be easy to live without the elements from the sea. If the sea water didn't have these elements, there would have to be another source of them, or life could not exist.

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