An aqueous solution of salts of a rather constant composition of elements whose presence determines the climate and makes life possible on the Earth and which constitutes the oceans, the mediterranean seas, and their embayments. The physical, chemical, biological, and geological events therein are the studies that are grouped as oceanography. Water is most often found in nature as seawater (about 98%). The rest is ice, water vapor, and fresh water. The basic properties of seawater, their distribution, the interchange of properties between sea and atmosphere or land, the transmission of energy within the sea, and the geochemical laws governing the composition of seawater and sediments are the fundamentals of oceanography. See also: Hydrosphere; Oceanography