Back to the Salt Mines: Evaporites and major/element chemistry of ancient oceans

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Section of halite. Searching for appropriate textures and inclusions for microanalysis. Notice the cloudy halite “fluid inclusion rich”

Fluid inclusion banding in halite. Major/element concentrations in these fluid inclusions can be analysed using Cryo-SEM-EDS. Major/element concentrations are used to understand brine evolution during evaporation. The fluid inclusion in the central part of the photo trapped an anhydrite crystal during growth. The bigger inclusion is only 50 µm across

SEM photo of opened halite fluid inclusions during microanalysis.

Gypsum fragment from the bottom of a modern salt work in the Mediterranean. Notice the green and red algal mats bellow the gypsum crust