Brines and Evaporites

Book excerpt: Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Short Courses in Geology Series, Volume 3. This course is designed to present fundamental concepts and constraints of evaporitic mineral precipitation in different depositional environments, a discussion of the concentration of attendant accessory accumulations of clastics, base metals and hydrocarbons, an integrated overview of epigenetic alteration of evaporite deposits, and a systematic analysis of ancient evaporite basin configurations. These notes present case histories of current evaporite deposition in the hope that they will provide the keys to a better understanding of ancient salt basins. The data presented here essentially rely on basins studied by the author and his coworkers. Although this choice may appear somewhat limited to some readers familiar with classical models, the examples shown here cover the main present-day geological settings. Furthermore, observations on pre-evaporitic deposits were also introduced.