Sea salt authenticity

[Smithy]

oh, and here's more interesting info... this source says that salt in the earth doesn't come from the sea - but it's actually the other way around - salt in the sea comes from the earth!

http://www.onr.navy.mil/focus/ocean/water/salinity1.htm

...and, if you have an inland basin (called a "sink") with water flowing in occasionally but never flowing out, you'll end up with either a very saline body of water (the Salton Sea in California, the Great Salt Lake of Utah) or an alkali flat (Bonneville Salt Flats and the landing area for Edwards Air Base being 2 examples in the western US). Water comes in, much of it evaporates and leaves the concentrated salts behind. I don't think I'd care for Salton Sea salt now - too much contaminated runoff to provide impurities - but at the turn of the last century salt mining was a going concern there. We should be glad that most of our inland water bodies eventually drain to the oceans.