Copyright © 2012, The Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists (SEPM)

Marine Evaporites (SC4), 1987

Section 9

DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS OF EVAPORITE DEPOSITS

Gerald M. Friedman

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Troy, New York

INTRODUCTION

Evaporites are sedimentary deposits composed of minerals

precipitated from brines concentrated by evaporation. Some
evaporites were deposited from the waters of inland desert
basins. Others are products of evaporitic concentration within
the interstitial waters of bodies of sediment located along the
margins of the sea. Stíll other evaporites formed from the
waters of the ocean. Finally, some evaporites evidently have
resulted from replacement - minerals of preexisting rocks that
are not evaporites have been replaced by evaporite minerals.
Although the term evaporite is appropriate for all of these kinds
of materials, the sedimentary processes by which each formed
differ drastically. Moreover, the kinds of rocks with which each
of these kinds of evaporites interfinger likewise differ. In a
discussion of evaporites, therefore, one has a choice: (1) bring
together materials about diverse environments under the heading
of evaporites, or (2) focus the discussion on environments, and
bring in the products, including evaporites, where appropriate.
In this symposium, the attention has been on the first
choice. By contrast, in the new book on VtPrinciples of
Sedimentology", Friedman and Sanders (1978) have chosen the
second alternative. They have no chapter entitled tlEvaporitesU,
but this does not mean that they have left out evaporites. Far
from it. They discuss evaporites in at least four chapters,
representing four different environments. The ocurrence of
evaporites in these environments will now be discussed.

CONTINENTAL SABKHAS

Sabkhas are of two kinds - interior continental and sea

marginal. Sabkhas are equilibrium deflation-sedimentation
surfaces or tdeflation_sedimentation windows" through to the
local water table (Kinsman, 1969). The capillary fringe above
the water table marks the base of wind deflation. Sediment above
this capillary fringe is removed by the wind, hence a flat
surface is formed that is related to the groundwater table.
An example of a continental sabkha is the Yotvata Sabkha in
the southern Arava Valley between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea
(Amiel and Friedman, 1971). Intermittent streams within the

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