河南吴城天然碱矿床地质特征及戍因探讨

吴城碱矿是世界罕见的古代天然碱矿床之一,属于典型的陆相碳酸盐型盐湖沉积。矿床赋存于一个早第三纪断陷盆地中,该盆地发育了厚约2400余米的陆相碎屑—蒸发岩。天然碱距地表650—900余米,呈多层状产出,下部为天然碱矿层,上部则为含岩盐天然碱层。矿床盐类矿物组合以天然碱为主,次为石盐、重碳酸钠盐。共生矿物有磷钠钙石、氯碳钠镁石,未见通常在碳酸盐湖中出现的硫酸盐矿物——芒硝。     

中国石盐矿床之分类

中国石盐矿产资源丰富 ,不同矿床产出地质背景、成矿条件、时空分布特征、物质组成等不尽相同。按其物相特征划分为固相矿床和液相 (卤水 )矿床两大类。前者根据产出时代及岩相特征划分为第四纪盐湖型、中新生代陆相碎屑岩型和前中生代 (含三叠纪 )海相碳酸盐型等矿床类型 ,根据不同的矿石建造还可作进一步划分。后者又可分为不同时代的地表及地下卤水矿床类型。成岩盆地受构造控制明显。有计划地综合开发利用我国盐类矿产资源有重要意义。     

Phase Chemistry Study of the Zabuye Salt Lake Brine: Isothermal Evaporation at 15°C and 25°C

Zabuye Salt Lake in Tibet, China is a carbonate-type salt lake, which has some unique characteristics that make it different from other types of salt lakes. The lake is at the latter period in its evolution and contains liquid and solid resources. Its brine is rich in Li, B, K and other useful minor elements that are of great economic value. We studied the concentration behavior of these elements and the crystallization paths of salts during isothermal evaporation of brine at 15°C and 25°C. The crystallization sequence of the primary salts from the brine at 25°C is halite (NaCl) → aphthitalite (3K2SO4·Na2SO4) → zabuyelite (Li2CO3)→ trona (Na2CO3·NaHCO3·2H2O) → thermonatrite (Na2CO3·H2O) → sylvite (KCl), while the sequence is halite (NaCl) → sylvite (KCl) → trona (Na2CO3·NaHCO3·2H2O) → zabuyelite (Li2CO3) → thermonatrite (Na2CO3·H2O) → aphthitalite (3K2SO4·Na2SO4) at 15°C. They are in accordance with the metastable phase diagram of the Na+, K+-Cl?, CO32?, SO42?-H2O quinary system at 25°C, except for Na2CO3·7H2O which is replaced by trona and thermonatrite. In the 25°C experiment, zabuyelite (Li2CO3) was precipitated in the early stage because Li2CO3 is supersaturated in the brine at 25°C, in contrast with that at 15°C, it precipitated in the later stage. Potash was precipitated in the middle and late stages in both experiments, while boron was concentrated in the early and middle stages and precipitated in the late stage.     

腾格里地区盐湖的盐类沉积特征

腾格里沙漠122个盐湖分为石盐、石盐-芒硝、石盐-白钠镁矾及芒硝(石膏)4种类型。盐湖含盐系厚度一般4～9m,总体呈现下部为含盐碎屑沉积,上部以盐类沉积为主,构成储卤层,卤水赋存其中,由湖岸至湖心储卤层厚度增长。含卤层理渐小,卤水含KCl渐高。盐湖中矿物主要为碳酸盐矿物,以芒硝、石膏为主的硫酸盐矿物、石盐以及粘土矿物。盐湖卤水以晶间卤水为主。许多卤水含K+大于2g/L。K+含量最高的红盐池,平均含量达19.14g/L。对钾矿而言,在盐湖分布相对集中地区,有一定的综合开发利用前景。     

An explanation for the varves of the Castile evaporites (Upper Permian), Texas and New Mexico, USA

Abstract Extraordinary sequences of conspicuous, pervasive and laterally persistent varves characterize the Castile evaporites. They occur as singlets (calcite laminae), couplets (calcite laminae interstratified with anhydrite laminae), thick couplets (calcite laminae interstratified with thin anhydrite beds) and triplets (calcite and anhydrite laminae interstratified with thin halite beds). The varves accumulated in a deep (initially ≈ 550 m), persistently stratified, saline lake surrounded by an extinct reef. The lake had formed when the reef grew across a channel between an embayment and the ocean. Although located virtually on the palaeo-equator, the lake experienced negligible meteoric influx and extreme seasonality. During the season of high relative humidity, more marine groundwater entered the lake through the permeable reef barrier than exited as reflux and, secondarily, as evaporation. Consequently, the lake level rose by up to several metres to sea level. The ‘refreshening’ decreased salinity and replenished dissolved CO₂– the critical nutrient limiting growth of indigenous phytoplankton. Algae proliferated, pH increased and CaCO₃ precipitated. It mixed with organic matter to form a thin, dark lamina. During the season of low relative humidity, tens of cubic kilometres of water evaporated from and, secondarily, leaked out through the surrounding reef. More water exited than entered, brine level fell below sea level, and salinity of the upper brine layer increased. Gypsum usually precipitated and rained onto the basin floor forming a couplet; infrequently, halite also precipitated forming a triplet. Every few thousand years, for <50 to several hundred years, the lake became unstratified during the dry season, and wind-induced overturn allowed a layer of gypsum crystals up to ≈ 2 cm high to precipitate on the basin floor. Each layer, now thin beds of anhydrite nodules and anhydrite pseudomorphs after gypsum, and an underlying lamina of CaCO₃ and admixed organic matter formed a thick couplet. The different varve types recur with a period of 1800–3000 years reflecting climatic changes on a millennial time scale.     

新疆罗布泊盐湖氢氧锶硫同位素地球化学及钾矿成矿物质来源

罗布泊罗北凹地第四系上部盐层中蕴藏丰富的卤水,卤水中则富含钾（ＫＣｌ平均品位为１．４０％）。文章通过对罗布泊卤水氢、氧、锶及硫同位素等分析及与塔里木盆地（河流）、柴达木盆地等地区对比研究,确定了罗布泊富钾卤水源于地表水,可能主要是塔里木盆地南北缘河流水;卤水中的硫钾等物质组分主要来源于南天山、塔里木盆地西北、西南部中新生代石膏钙芒硝石盐矿床或地层及其古代地层卤水。由于第四纪期间塔里木盆地西部抬升。     

Studies of Quaternary saline lakes—III. Mineral,chemical, and isotopic evidence of salt solution and crystallization processes in Owens Lake,California, 1969–1971

As a consequence of the 1969–1970 flooding of normally dry Owens Lake, a 2.4-m-deep lake formed and 20% of the 2-m-thick salt bed dissolved in it. Its desiccation began August 1969, and salts started crystallizing September 1970, ending August 1971. Mineralogic, brine-composition, and stable-isotope data plus field observations showed that while the evolving brine composition established the general crystallization timetable and range of primary and secondary mineral assemblages, it was the daily, monthly, and seasonal temperature changes that controlled the details of timing and mineralogy during this depositional process. Deuterium analyses of lake brine, interstitial brine, and hydrated saline phases helped confirm the sequence of mineral crystallizations and transformations, and they documented the sources and temperatures of waters involved in the reactions.Salts first crystallized as floating rafts on the lake surface. Natron and mirabilite, salts whose solubilities decrease greatly with lowering temperatures, crystallized late at night in winter, when surface-water temperatures reached their minima; trona, nahcolite, burkeite, and halite, salts with solubilities less sensitive to temperature, crystallized during the afternoon in summer, when surface salinities reached their maxima. However, different temperatures were generally associated with crystallization (at the surface) and accumulation (on the lake floor) because short-term temperature changes were transmitted to surface and bottom waters at different rates. Consequently, even when solubilities were exceeded at the surface, salts were preserved or not as a function of bottom-water temperatures. Halite, a nearly temperature-insensitive salt, was always preserved.Monitoring the lake-brine chemistry and mineralogy of the accumulating salts shows: (1) An estimated 0.9 × 10⁶ tons of CO₂ was released to the atmosphere or consumed by the lake's biomass prior to most salt crystallization. (2) After deposition, some salts reacted in situ to form other minerals in less than one month, and all salts (except halite) decomposed or recrystallized at least once in response to seasons. (3) Warming in early 1971 caused solution of all the mirabilite and some of the natron deposited a few months earlier, a deepening of the lake (though the lake-surface lowered), and an increase in dissolved solids. (4) Phase and solubility-index data suggest that at the close of desiccation, Na₂CO₃·7H₂O, never reported as a mineral, could have been the next phase to crystallize.     

The characteristics,formation and exploration progress of the potash deposits on the Khorat Plateau,Thailand and Laos,Southeast Asia

The giant potash deposit on the Khorat Plateau is one of the most promising targets for exploitation of potassium salts. So far, many researches and geologic survey have been conducted on the giant potash deposits. Hence, it is necessary to make an overall review on the potash deposits. The potash deposit on the Khorat Plateau was formed during the Middle to Late Cretaceous, during which seawater was enriched in Ca²⁺ and depleted in SO₄^2- compared with those of modem seawater. In addition to seawater, continental water and hydrothermal fluids could have affected the evaporite basins. The seawater was probably derived from Tethys ocean, and the brine should have evaporated to some extent before entering into the basin systems based on the evidence of absence of carbonates and unproportionate sulphate compared with chloride salts. The paleo-climate during Middle to Late Cretaceous was characterized as high temperature and extremely arid environment, which is favourable for deposition of potassium-magnesium saline minerals. The major saline minerals are of anhydrite, halite, camallite, sylvite and, tachyhydrite, with trace amounts of borates. The resources of the potash deposit on the Khorat Plateau could be approximately as much as 400×10⁹ t of camallite and 7×10⁹ t of sylvite. The evaporite sequences have been deformed and altered by postdepositinal processes, including tectonic movements and chemical alteration. Salt domes were formed in the postdepositional processes. Based on the analyses of geophysical surveys and drilling projects, high-quality sylvinite ores are commonly found at the flanks of those salt domes due to incongruent dissolution of camallite. The future potential prospecting areas for the high-quality sylvinite ores would be on the edges of the Khorat Plateau.     

Sedimentological characteristics and geochemical evolution of Nabq sabkha, Gulf of Aqaba, Sinai, Egypt

Nabq sabkha exists 16 km north of Sharm El Sheikh City occupying the low land topography in the alluvial fan zone along the coastal area, Gulf of Aqaba, Sinai, Egypt. The long axis of the sabkha trends NW–SE receiving water from two different sources: meteoric water drained from the surrounding mountainous area and seawater seepage. Field observations help to divide the area into raised beach, hill slopes, sabkha basin, and coastal area. The sabkha basin can be subdivided from its center outward into (1) basin center hypersaline lake flourished with microbial mat and precipitation of halite as rafts, cumulates, and chevrons, (2) saturated saline sand and/or mud flat zone with the extensive growth of gypsum and halite crystals growing displacively as well as different forms of petee structures, and (3) an elevated marginal dry zone with tepee structures. Mineralogical analysis reveals that quartz, halite, and gypsum are the dominant minerals with subordinate amount of aragonite, anhydrite, thenardite, and/or polyhalite. In addition, clay minerals in the mudflat zone are presented by illite and smectite, indicating derivation of soil from the surrounding basement rocks. Chemical analysis of the collected brine samples reveals alkali character in the saline lake (pH?=?7.6) and high concentrations of Na⁺ (680 meq/l), Cl^? (940 meq/l), Mg²⁺ (208 meq/l), Ca²⁺ (70 meq/l), SO ₄ ²⁺ (30 meq/l), and HCO ₃ ^? (6 meq/l). The high salinity values are due to the aridity of the area, which favors precipitation of halite. Using comparative sedimentological, chemical, and mineralogial methods between such modern and ancient evaporitic environments and by detailed field, petrographic and mineralogical studies of modern evaporite environments help to interpret paleo-depositional environments of ancient evaporites sequences still in debate.