Marine evaporite systems operate in shallow restricted epicontinental basins in arid to hyperarid climatic zones. Elements present in seawater are concentrated by evaporation. As salinity increases, evaporite minerals typically precipitate in the following sequence : gypsum or anhydrite, halite, sylvite. Residual basin brines are enriched in conserved elements, such as Mg and Li. Incursion of fresh water or seawater can produce halite dissolution brines.
Color on map:
Deposit types
Name
Commodities
Critical minerals
Sabkha dolomite
Building stone, aggregate, Mg
Mg
Sedimentary magnesite
Mg
Mg
Gypsum
Gypsum (CaSO4*2H2O)
not-applicable
Salt
Salt (NaCl)
not-applicable
Potash
Potash (KCl)
Potash
Dissolution brine
Petroleum, salt (NaCl)
not-applicable
References
Raup, O.B., 1991a, Descriptive model of bedded salt--Deposit subtype--Marine evaporite salt (Model 35ac), in Orris, G.J., and Bliss, J.D., eds., Some industrial mineral deposit models--Descriptive deposit models: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 91-11A, p. 33-35. Raup, O.B., 1991b, Descriptive model of bedded gypsum--Deposit subtype--Marine evaporite gypsum (Model 35ae), in Orris, G.J., and Bliss, J.D., eds., Some industrial mineral deposit models--Descriptive deposit models: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 91-11A, p. 39-41. Mountney, N.P., 2005, Sedimentary environments/deserts, in Encyclopedia of Geology, p. 539-549, accessed March 30, 2021, at https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-12-369396-9/00176-3. Warren, J.K., 2010, Evaporites through time--Tectonic, climatic and eustatic controls in marine and nonmarine deposits: Earth-Science Reviews, v. 98, no. 3-4, p. 217-268. [Also available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2009.11.004.] Horn, C.M., Keeling, J.L., and Olliver, J.G., 2017, Sedimentary magnesite deposits, Flinders Range, in Phillips, N., ed., 2017, Australian ore deposits: The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Monograph 32, p. 671-672.
Source: Hofstra, A.H., and Kreiner, D.C., 2020, Systems-Deposits-Commodities-Critical Minerals Table for the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2020-1042, 24 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20201042.
