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Recent sediments from a coastal pond, eastern margin of the Dead Sea, Jordan

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Abstract

A marginal pond on the eastern coast of the southern part of the Dead Sea in Jordan receives fresh and thermal waters from adjacent areas. The pool has a narrow “intertidal” zone in which halite-encrusted stromatolites flourish. The muddy sediments of the pond consist of a mixture of detrital clay minerals and calcite with authigenic halite and dolomite. The association of halite with dolomite supports the assertion that dolomite is an evaporitic mineral. The absence of gypsum in these sediments is attributed to bacterial reduction of sulfates.

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Sadooni, F.N., Saqqa, W. & Abrahim, G. Recent sediments from a coastal pond, eastern margin of the Dead Sea, Jordan. Carbonates Evaporites 17, 79–86 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03175659

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