What term describes the process of removing salt from seawater to create fresh water?

• A. Filtration
• B. Distillation
• C. Desalination
• D. Osmosis

Answer: (C)

Desalination is the process of removing dissolved salts from seawater to make fresh water. This term covers methods like distillation, where seawater is heated and the water vapor is collected separately from the salts, and reverse osmosis, which uses pressure to push water through a semipermeable membrane while leaving the salts behind. Filtration removes larger particles but not dissolved salts, so it doesn’t convert seawater into fresh water. Osmosis is the natural movement of water across a membrane and, by itself, doesn’t remove dissolved salts to produce potable water. So desalination best describes turning seawater into usable fresh water.