A synthesis of the full evaporite-basin lifecycle from restricted seawater inflow through gypsum, halite and potash precipitation to later dissolution and karst.
Category Rock Salt Chemistry
Featured Articles
A USGS strontium-isotope test of whether Castile Formation evaporites were derived mainly from seawater or strongly mixed continental waters.
The geochemical logic behind enrichment of K, Mg, Li and other elements in residual brines after halite precipitation.
How dissolution of older evaporites can create NaCl- and CaSO4-rich brines and feed later mineral precipitation.
An explanation of the typical gypsum/anhydrite, halite and sylvite-potash precipitation sequence in marine evaporite systems.
How USGS interpretations of Castile and Salado evaporites explain gypsum and halite forming under different hydrologic conditions.
The 2023 reconstruction of seawater strontium from 1,371 fluid inclusions in 131 halite samples.
Testing fluid-inclusion analytical methods with laboratory-grown halite in NaCl-KCl-MgCl2-CaCl2 brine systems.
A synthesis of modern, Silurian, Permian, Cretaceous and Neoproterozoic halite studies explaining why halite is a powerful archive of paleoseawater chemistry.
A sourced profile of Tim K. Lowenstein’s research on halite fluid inclusions, ancient seawater chemistry and evaporite geochemistry.
The 2001 validation of paleoseawater reconstruction by comparing modern marine and nonmarine halite fluid inclusions.
The analytical, provenance-validation and thermodynamic back-calculation steps used to reconstruct paleoseawater from halite fluid inclusions.
Who Is Prof. Tim K. Lowenstein? Halite Fluid Inclusions, Paleoseawater and Evaporite Geochemistry
A sourced profile of Tim K. Lowenstein’s research on halite fluid inclusions, ancient seawater chemistry and evaporite geochemistry.
Do Halite Fluid Inclusions Really Record Seawater? The 2001 Great Inagua and Baja California Test
The 2001 validation of paleoseawater reconstruction by comparing modern marine and nonmarine halite fluid inclusions.
How Is Ancient Seawater Reconstructed from Halite Fluid Inclusions? The Three-Step Method
The analytical, provenance-validation and thermodynamic back-calculation steps used to reconstruct paleoseawater from halite fluid inclusions.
What Was Silurian Seawater Like? Major-Ion Chemistry from 100 Halite Fluid Inclusions
The Brennan and Lowenstein 2002 reconstruction of Silurian seawater from 100 inclusions in Michigan and Canning Basin halites.
Permian Seawater Chemistry: Fluid-Inclusion Evidence from Texas, New Mexico and European Halites
The 2005 Lowenstein study reconstructing Permian seawater major-ion chemistry from halite fluid inclusions.
Why Was Cretaceous Seawater Different? Chemical Records from Brazilian, Congo and Thai Halites
The 2006 reconstruction of calcium-rich, sulfate-poor Cretaceous seawater from halite fluid inclusions.
Lead in Pink Salt: One Sample Above the Limit in the 31-Sample Study
The context of a lead result above the Australian maximum contaminant level in one pink-salt sample.
How Was Pink Salt Analysed in the Laboratory? Mass-Spectrometry Scanning of Solid Samples
An explanation of the solid-sample mass-spectrometry approach used to measure 25 components in the 2020 study.
Acid Solubility of Trace Elements in Rock Salt: The Steinhauser Team’s Bioavailability Approach
The method used by Steinhauser and colleagues to estimate potential bioavailability by dissolving rock salt in dilute hydrochloric acid.
How Did Rock Salts from Six Countries Differ? Comparing 18 Samples from Austria to Pakistan
Trace-element comparison of rock salts from Austria, Germany, Pakistan, Poland, Switzerland and Ukraine in the Steinhauser study.