Brine - Definition and Overview

Brine is water saturated or nearly saturated with salt. It is used (now less popular than historically) to preserve vegetables, fish, and meat.

Brine lakes, like the Dead Sea, develop as a result of high evaporation rates in a desert climate and lack of an outlet to the ocean. The salt in these bodies of water comes from either minerals washed out of the surrounding watershed or from a geologically old, previous connection to the ocean. Another example is the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

Man-made brine ponds, usually located along an ocean shore, are a source of commercial table salt sodium chloride, which is obtained by evaporating and purifying seawater. Commercial table salt is also obtained by way of a salt mine.

See also

• Brining
• Sea salt
• Sea water