Evaporite

Cobble encrusted with halite evaporated from the Dead Sea, Israel.

Evaporite /ᵻˈvæpəraɪt/ is a name for a water-soluble mineral sediment that results from concentration and crystallization by evaporation from an aqueous solution.[1] There are two types of evaporite deposits: marine, which can also be described as ocean deposits, and non-marine, which are found in standing bodies of water such as lakes. Evaporites are considered sedimentary rocks and are formed by chemical sediments.

Formation of evaporite rocks

Although all water bodies on the surface and in aquifers contain dissolved salts, the water must evaporate into the atmosphere for the minerals to precipitate. For this to happen, the water body must enter a restricted environment where water input into this environment remains below the net rate of evaporation. This is usually an arid environment with a small basin fed by a limited input of water. When evaporation occurs, the remaining water is enriched in salts, and they precipitate when the water becomes supersaturated.

Evaporite depositional environments

Marine evaporites

Anhydrite

Marine evaporites tend to have thicker deposits and are usually the focus of more extensive research.[2] They also have a system of evaporation. When scientists evaporate ocean water in a laboratory, the minerals are deposited in a defined order that was first demonstrated by Usiglio in 1884.[2] The first phase of the experiment begins when about 50% of the original water depth remains. At this point, minor carbonates begin to form.[2] The next phase in the sequence comes when the experiment is left with about 20% of its original level. At this point, the mineral gypsum begins to form, which is then followed by halite at 10%,[2] excluding carbonate minerals that tend not to be evaporates. The most common minerals that are generally considered to be the most representative of marine evaporates are calcite, gypsum and anhydrite, halite, sylvite, carnallite, langbeinite, polyhalite, and kainite. Kieserite (MgSO4) may also be included, which often will make up less than four percent of the overall content.[2] However, there are approximately 80 different minerals that have been reported found in evaporite deposits (Stewart,1963;Warren,1999), though only about a dozen are common enough to be considered important rock formers.[2]

Non-marine evaporites

Non-marine evaporites are usually composed of minerals that are not common in marine environments, because in general the water from which non-marine evaporite precipitates have proportions of chemical elements different from those found in the marine environments.[2] Common minerals that are found in these deposits include blödite, borax, epsomite, gaylussite, glauberite, mirabilite, thenardite and trona. Non-marine deposits may also contain halite, gypsum, and anhydrite, and may in some cases even be dominated by these minerals, although they did not come from ocean deposits. This, however, does not make non-marine deposits any less important; these deposits often help to paint a picture into past Earth climates. Some particular deposits even show important tectonic and climatic changes. These deposits also may contain important minerals that help in today's economy.[3] Thick non-marine deposits that accumulate tend to form where evaporation rates will exceed the inflow rate, and where there is sufficient soluble supplies. The inflow also has to occur in a closed basin, or one with restricted outflow, so that the sediment has time to pool and form in a lake or other standing body of water.[3] Primary examples of this are called "saline lake deposits".[3] Saline lakes includes things such as perennial lakes, which are lakes that are there year-round, playa lakes, which are lakes that appear only during certain seasons, or any other terms that are used to define places that hold standing bodies of water intermittently or year-round. Examples of modern non-marine depositional environments include the Great Salt Lake in Utah and the Dead Sea, which lies between Jordan and Israel.

Evaporite depositional environments that meet the above conditions include:

The most significant known evaporite depositions happened during the Messinian salinity crisis in the basin of the Mediterranean.

Evaporitic formations

Hopper crystal cast of halite in a Jurassic rock, Carmel Formation, southwestern Utah.

Evaporite formations need not be composed entirely of halite salt. In fact, most evaporite formations do not contain more than a few percent of evaporite minerals, the remainder being composed of the more typical detrital clastic rocks and carbonates. Examples of evaporate formations include occurrences of evaporite sulfur in Eastern Europe and West Asia.[4]

For a formation to be recognised as evaporitic it may simply require recognition of halite pseudomorphs, sequences composed of some proportion of evaporite minerals, and recognition of mud crack textures or other textures.

Economic importance of evaporites

Evaporites are important economically because of their mineralogy, their physical properties in-situ, and their behaviour within the subsurface.

Evaporite minerals, especially nitrate minerals, are economically important in Peru and Chile. Nitrate minerals are often mined for use in the production on fertilizer and explosives.

Thick halite deposits are expected to become an important location for the disposal of nuclear waste because of their geologic stability, predictable engineering and physical behaviour, and imperviousness to groundwater.

Halite formations are famous for their ability to form diapirs, which produce ideal locations for trapping petroleum deposits.

Major groups of evaporite minerals

Calcite

This is a chart that shows minerals that form the marine evaporite rocks, they are usually the most common minerals that appear in this kind of deposit.

Mineral class Mineral name Chemical Composition
Chlorides Halite

Sylvite

Carnallite

Kainite

 NaCl

KCl

KMgCl3 * 6H2O

KMg(SO4)Cl * 3H2O

Sulfates Anhydrite

Gypsum

Kieserite

Langbeinite

Polyhalite

 CaSO4

CaSO4 * 2H2O

MgSO4 * H2O

K2Mg2(SO4)3

K2Ca2Mg(SO4)6 * H2O

Carbonates Dolomite

Calcite

Magnesite

 CaMg(CO3)2

CaCO3

MgCO3

Hanksite, Na22K(SO4)9(CO3)2Cl, one of the few minerals that is both a carbonate and a sulfate

Evaporite minerals start to precipitate when their concentration in water reaches such a level that they can no longer exist as solutes.

The minerals precipitate out of solution in the reverse order of their solubilities, such that the order of precipitation from sea water is :

  1. Calcite (CaCO3) and dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2)
  2. Gypsum (CaSO4-2H2O) and anhydrite (CaSO4).
  3. Halite (i.e. common salt, NaCl)
  4. Potassium and magnesium salts

The abundance of rocks formed by seawater precipitation is in the same order as the precipitation given above. Thus, limestone (calcite) and dolomite are more common than gypsum, which is more common than halite, which is more common than potassium and magnesium salts.

Evaporites can also be easily recrystallized in laboratories in order to investigate the conditions and characteristics of their formation.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Evaporite.

References

  1. ↑ Jackson, Julia A., 1997, Glossary of Geology 4th edition, American Geologic Institute, Alexandria Virginia
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Boggs, S., 2006, Principles of Sedimentology and Stratigraphy (4th ed.), Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 662 p.
  3. 1 2 3 Melvin, J. L.(ed) 1991, Evaporites, petroleum and mineral resources; Elsevier, Amsterdam
  4. ↑ C.Michael Hogan. 2011. Sulfur. Encyclopedia of Earth, eds. A.Jorgensen and C.J.Cleveland, National Council for Science and the environment, Washington DC
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