Harry Helfand, age 10, of Newport News, Virginia, for his question:

Was the ocean always salty?

Earth scientists tell us that the seas get a little saltier every day    and this has been happening for billions of years. In the beginning, our infant earth was so hot that showers turned to steam when they landed on the surface. But later the cloudy skies poured down rain in deluges. This helped to cool the bare land and floods dashed down the slopes to fill the hollows. They filled the ocean basins and formed the first seas. The waters were fairly fresh because the streams did not have much time to dissolve salty chemicals as they rushed down the slopes.

Later, the deluges decreased and so did the dashing streams. The running water had time to dissolve salts and other chemicals from the land. The streams dumped this stolen loot into the oceans. The sun evaporated moisture from the surface of the seas    but the salty chemicals stayed behind. The first freshwater seas grew saltier as they grew older    and more salty chemicals are being added every day.