Electric Field of the Ocean Induced by Diffusion

Abstract

The equations for gradient of electric field in seawater induced by gradients of salinity, temperature and pressure were developed by means of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. Extrathermodynamic assumptions and accepted chemical model of seawater permit to carry out numerical calculations of electric field caused by diffusion, thermodiffusion and barodiffusion for realistic hydrophysical structure of the ocean. It is shown that contribution of barodiffusion into electric field of the ocean is almost constant (about −3 × 10 −7 V/M). This magnitude can be ignored in many cases because it is too small. However natural salinity and temperature gradients significantly impact into electric field of the ocean.