saline giant

views updated May 17 2018

saline giant A thick and extensive salt deposit, produced by the evaporation of a large hypersaline sea. In north-western Europe, for example, the Zechstein salts, which are mined in northern Germany for rock salt and potash, were formed during the Permian by the evaporation of water from a partially barred marine basin covering more than 250 000 km2 (see Zechstein Sea). Similar extensive evaporite deposits were also formed further south during the Miocene by the evaporation of part of the Mediterranean.

saline giant

views updated May 08 2018

saline giant A thick and extensive salt deposit, produced by the evaporation of a large hypersaline sea. One example of a saline giant is the Miocene evaporites of the Mediterranean, which formed by the repeated evaporation of the Mediterranean Sea. Another is the Permian-aged Zechstein salts of north-western Europe (see ZECHSTEIN SEA), which formed as a result of the repeated evaporation of a partially barred marine basin which covered more than 250 000 km2.