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Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences pp 427–433Cite as

Marine Evaporites

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Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Definition

Marine evaporites form by extreme evaporation of seawater either directly in an open-water environment with restricted circulation or diagenetically from sediment pore waters.

Introduction

Geology hangs its interpretive powers on the principal of uniformitarianism, i.e., the present is the key to the past. Unfortunately for marine evaporates, there is no present example for the thick, aerially extensive ancient evaporite deposits (“saline giants”). That would require a large, deep basin with a marine connection but with restricted circulation, and a huge influx of seawater for a long time. The marine connection could be surface water or marine-fed groundwater. It would also require a warm climate with extreme net evaporation that existed for a long time. The Quaternary is not a good analog for the extent and distribution of climates that existed throughout most of the Phanerozoic because during the Quaternary the world was in an icehouse mode. However, during most of the...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Geological Survey, Box 25046, MS980 Federal Center, Denver, CO, 80225, USA

    Walter E. Dean

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  1. Walter E. Dean
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Correspondence to Walter E. Dean .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland

    Jan Harff

  2. University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

    Martin Meschede

  3. GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany

    Sven Petersen

  4. Institute of Earth Science, KÖPPEN-Laboratory, Saint Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia

    JÖrn Thiede

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Dean, W.E. (2016). Marine Evaporites. In: Harff, J., Meschede, M., Petersen, S., Thiede, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6238-1_188

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