Türkiye Sea Salt Atlas documents salt produced from seawater through solar evaporation. It is separate from the rock-salt and spring-salt atlases because the raw material, production environment and ecological context are different.
How Sea Salt Is Produced
Seawater is moved through a sequence of shallow ponds. Evaporation progressively concentrates dissolved salts until sodium chloride crystallises in dedicated crystallisation areas.
Pond depth, water movement, wind, temperature and rainfall all influence the production cycle.
Çamaltı Saltworks
İzmir Çamaltı, located in the Gediz Delta region, is Türkiye’s largest and best-known marine saltworks. Its production landscape is closely intertwined with an internationally important wetland ecosystem.
Ayvalık Saltworks
Balıkesir Ayvalık represents another historical marine salt-production landscape along the Aegean coast, using seawater and evaporation ponds.
Ecology
Solar saltworks can create highly saline artificial or semi-natural habitats used by specialised microorganisms and birds. Their ecological value depends on water management, wetland connectivity and disturbance.
Industrial production and habitat conservation therefore need to be considered together in coastal saltworks.
Sea Salt Is Not Rock Salt
Sea salt crystallises from modern seawater. Rock salt is ancient halite preserved within geological deposits. Both are dominated by sodium chloride, but their geological origins and production methods are distinct.
Related article: Türkiye 81-Province Salt Inventory.