I was actually responding to your comment about "If there is no way it
could ever crystalize [salt] when the whole [ocean] is not at saturation
levels..." rather than the part about the ocean salt balance. I was trying
to explain how salt can be crystallized from ocean water without
supersaturating the entire ocean.
As for the possibility our calculations may be way off, that seems
unlikely. If the earth is 4.5 billion years old, then there will be
mechanisms in place to maintain the ocean salt balance, though not
necessarily at the same level throughout geologic time. The ocean salt
balance only becomes important if the earth is less than 50 million years
old, and that is highly unlikely as well.
Kevin L. O'Brien
klob@lamar.colostate.edu