Thermodynamic evidence of giant salt deposit formation by serpentinization: an alternative mechanism to solar evaporation.

ABSTRACT: The evaporation of seawater in arid climates is currently the main accepted driving mechanism for the formation of ancient and recent salt deposits in shallow basins. However, the deposition of huge amounts of marine salts, including the formation of tens of metres of highly soluble types (tachyhydrite and bischofite) during the Aptian in the South Atlantic and during the Messinian Salinity Crisis, are inconsistent with the wet and warm palaeoclimate conditions reconstructed for these periods. Recently, a debate has been developed that opposes the classic model of evaporite deposition and argues for the generation of salt by serpentinization. The products of the latter process can be called "dehydratites". The associated geochemical processes involve the consumption of massive amounts of p

SUBMITTER: Debure M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6690867 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature