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What is the difference between salinity and specific gravity? |
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Salinity and specific gravity are two different measures for how much salt is contained in the water. And they can be quite easily converted between each other.
Salinity is based on the mass of salt present per mass of water. The typical units used to expressed the salinity is parts per thousand, ppt. Natural salt water has a salinity around 35 ppt, but this can vary depending on proximity to land and depth.
Specific gravity, on the other hand, is the density of the water divided by the density of a reference water sample. So it is a ratio. What the reference is can vary, with a good standard being pure water at 4oC. Temperature is important because the density of water changes with temperature. A specific gravity of 1.026 means that the water is 1.026 times denser than the reference sample.
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