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#Post#: 109--------------------------------------------------
Igneous Origin of Salt
By: Admin Date: February 4, 2017, 9:52 pm
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PRIMARY IGNEOUS ORIGIN OF SALT FORMATIONS
youtube.com/watch?v=MfN0MIOnRNQ
JOURNAL OF CREATION 23 (3) 2009
A magmatic model for the origin of large salt formations
Stef Heerema
HTML http://biblicalgeology.net/blog/magmatic-model-for-origin-large-salt-formations
Large formations of rock salt are found on every continent
around the world. Oil and gas are often associated with salt
deposits, which can rise kilometers above the top of the main
underground salt body. These salt deposits are commonly referred
to as “ evaporites ” because they are considered to have been
formed by the evaporation of sea water. The evaporite model
requires the evaporation of hundreds of kilometers of depth of
seawater, a process that would require vast periods of time, far
longer than the biblical timescale. Consequently evaporites have
been used as an argument against young-earth geology. However,
there are major problems with the evaporite model such that it
is totally inadequate to explain the thickness, volume,
structure and purity of salt deposits. A more feasible model
regards salt deposits as the product of igneous halite magma.
Such magmas melt at geologic temperatures, flow readily, and
account for the association of salt deposits with reserves of
coal, oil and gas. A modern analogy of such magmas, although
considerably smaller in scale, can be found at the Ol Doinyo
Lengay volcano in the north of Tanzania within the Great Rift
Valley. With the magmatic model large salt formations are
emplaced rapidly by igneous processes, a mechanism that is
consistent with the biblical timescale and a young earth.
Salt formations worldwide
Rock salt formations are found all over the world on every
continent. They extend deep underground. Some well-known
deposits such as the Permian Zechstein deposit in Europe, the
Jurassic Gulf Coast deposit in the Americas and the Miocene Red
Sea and Persian Gulf deposits in the Middle East have salt
pillars which rise nearly 4 km above the top of the main salt
body. Oil and gas are often found under such salt deposits. The
salt structures are composed mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl up
to 96%) with some other salts like potassium chloride (KCl) and
magnesium chloride (MgCl 2 ) present. These accessory salts are
mainly found deposited in thin horizontal layers within the
inner cores of the massive formations, 1 and not at the edges.
The common explanation for the genesis of these rock- salt
deposits is that the salt was evaporated from sea water, hence
the name evaporites. The evaporite model requires the
evaporation of immense depths of seawater, a process that would
require vast periods of time, far longer than the biblical
timescale. Consequently evaporites have been used as an argument
against the biblical timescale and the young-earth. The basic
idea was developed by Ochsenius in the late 1800s and is called
the “barrier theory”. He developed this idea from estimates of
the salt that evaporated in the Caspian Sea in 1877. 2 His
theory describes how salty seawater floods over a sandbank into
a large shallow enclosed area. The confined area behind the
sandbank gets heated by the sun causing the seawater to
evaporate and deposit the salt. The shallow sea must be located
in an area of high sunlight where evaporation is greater than
the rainfall. Since the 1960s, and until recently, many
geologists were convinced that “evaporates” formed in a
tidal-flat environment. 3 But for salt deposits with thicknesses
as much as 10 km the process of flooding and evaporation would
have to be repeated tens of thousands of times. Nowadays, this
solar evaporitic origin is highly contentious. 4,5 Hydrothermal
water evaporation has been proposed as a mechanism, but it fails
to explain the huge size of the massifs. Therefore the marine
origin is still taught to students and presented to visitors of
salt mines. However, the evaporation theory has major problems
dealing with large salt formations:
1. To form a deposit only 1 km thick would require seawater 60
km deep to be evaporated. 6
2. The salt formations show negligible contamination with sand,
contradicting the evaporation model which requires a sandbank in
combination with consistently dry weather over a long period of
time. This process would introduce a lot of sand into the salt
evaporation enclosures.
3. The salt formations exhibit negligible contamination with
marine fossils, contrary to what would be expected with seawater
constantly flooding into the evaporation area and the enormous
amount of seawater involved.
4. The evaporation areas need to be in regions of high sunlight
and low rainfall if the seawater is to evaporate. However, the
distribution of salt deposits globally contradicts the idea that
all of these areas were once near the equator for the required
time to achieve such a result.
Igneous origin of salt formations
James Hutton had a different view on the origin of salt
formations. He identified concentric circles in a salt mine in
Cheshire (UK) in 1774 and concluded: “It is in vain to look, in
the operations of solution and evaporation, for that which
nothing but perfect fluidity of fusion can explain.” 7 Such an
igneous origin for the formation of salt deposits explains the
evidence well:
1. The temperature required to melt salt and create a salt
“magma” are well within the range of magmatic temperatures for
silica magmas, which are common in the stratigraphic record.
Melting temperatures for typical salts found in salt deposits
are given in table 1.
2. Molten NaCl flows easily like water (viscosity of NaCl at 850
° C is 1.29 MPa.s 2; viscosity of water at 20 ° C is 1.00
MPa.s), so a salt magma will flood into the lowest areas. 8
Because of its density it will displace any water and cause it
to boil. The boiling water will create the typical accessory
deposits around salt formations like anhydrite (CaSO4 ) and
calcite (CaCO3 ). 9 The next eruption will cover these anhydrite
and calcite deposits and again flow into the water and cause it
to boil. This process can repeat many times. In addition, the
surrounding sea water can be a source for the marine fossils
occasionally found within the salt layers. Of course, most
marine fossils (algae and zooplankton) will be found within the
anhydrite and calcite deposits.
3. It is well known that silica magmas can produce layered
igneous intrusions. Likewise, the crystallization and cooling of
the salt “magma” after emplacement will cause segregation of the
different salts into layers within the core of the deposit, as
found in the formations. Note that the low viscosity of the
haline magma will facilitate the loss of heat by convection,
which will cause the NaCl to solidify first while the salts with
a lower melting point will follow later. Sometimes this
crystallization process is interrupted by new pulses of magmatic
salt intrusion.
4. The Great Rift Valley is a 6,000-km-long geographic trough
formed as the result of a parting of the continental crust from
northern Syria in southwest Asia through the Dead Sea and the
Red Sea into central Mozambique in East Africa, as shown in
figure 1. Several volcanoes are active within this rift valley
which also hosts several salt massifs such as the Dead Sea and
the Danakil formations, which are 10 km and 5 km thick
respectively. Given the location of these massifs it seems
obvious that these have a volcanic origin. 10
5. Although the origin of the salt magma is not known at this
stage, it must have originated from deep inside the crust of the
earth. For a modern analogy of magmatic salt formation we can
look at the Ol Doinyo Lengay volcano in the north of Tanzania
within the Great Rift Valley. 8 The unusual black
natrocarbonatite lavas from this volcano erupt at a relatively
low temperature (~510ºC) and are much more fluid than silicate
lavas.
6. The surface of the molten salt flow will quickly solidify
upon contact with water, forming an impervious crust. Organisms
and vegetation deposited in the valleys (or under the water)
that are overrun by the flow of salt magma will, in the absence
of oxygen, be transformed into coal, oil and gas. The impervious
salt layer can form a gas tight enclosure able to store the
gases and liquids generated. Organic material contained within
the nearby lime and anhydride may also transform into coal, oil
and gas, but at lower temperatures and more slowly. The magmatic
origin of these salt formations explains the connection between
the salt deposits found around the globe and the associated
coal, oil and gas reserves.
- Minerals found in salt formations: Melting point (°C); Boiling
temperature (°C)
Halite NaCl 801 1461; Sylvite KCl 776 1500; Magnesium salt MgCl2
714 1412;
Carnallite KMgCl3-6H2O 117 ND; Bischofite MgCl2-6H2O ND ND.
- Table 1. Melting and boiling temperatures of the layers in the
salt formations (from ref. 11). ND = Not determined.
Diagenesis of salt after original deposition
- As the solid formations cool, the contraction of the deposit
will create stresses and faults. In addition, the salt deposits
are easily deformed by tectonic movements in the surrounding
country rock. Indeed, the higher the temperature of the salt,
the less resistance it has against creep. The salt deposit in
the Danakil Desert shows another form of diagenesis. The surface
of this desert is 120 m below sea level, which means the salt
formation is subject to groundwater pressure that creates a flow
through faults and tears in the 5-km-thick formation. The
interaction between the groundwater and the salt deposit emerges
from the surface as hot hydrothermal salty brine.
- Figure 1. The major salt formations of the world (from ref. 9)
together with the location of the Great Rift Valley in Africa.
Conclusion
The huge salt deposits found around the globe are not the result
of the evaporation of seawater over long periods of time.
Rather, the deposits were emplaced as a molten magma at
temperatures above 800 ° C. The evaporite model requires much
more time than is available for the biblical timescale. However,
the idea that the deposits were formed by the evaporation of
hundreds of kilometers of depth of seawater is totally
inadequate to explain the thickness, volume, structure and
purity of salt deposits. On the other hand, the model that has
the deposits resulting from the generation of large volumes of
molten salt “magma” explains the evidence. Furthermore, with the
magmatic model the large salt formations are emplaced rapidly by
igneous processes, a mechanism that is consistent with the
biblical timescale and a young earth.
References
1. Geluk, M.C., Paar, W.A. and Fokker, P.A., Salt; in: Geology
of the Netherlands , pp. 283–294, 2007;
<www.knaw.nl/publicaties/ pdf/20011075-17.pdf>, accessed 8 April
2009.
2. Natriumchlorid [Sodium chloride]; in: Ullmans Encyklopädie
der Technischen Chemie [Ullman’s Encyclopedia of Technical
Chemistry] , 4th revised and extended edition, vol. 17, Verlag
Chemie, Weinheim, Germany, p. 181, 1979.
3. Melvin, J.L, (Ed.), Evaporites, Petroleum and Mineral
Resources— Developments in Sedimentology 50 , Elsevier Science
Publishers, Amsterdam, p. 184, 1991.
4. Kendall, A.C. and Harwood, G.M., Marine evaporites: arid
shorelines and basins; in: Reading, H.G. (Ed.), Sedimentary
Environments, Processes, Facies and Stratigraphy , Blackwell
Science, Oxford, UK, pp. 281–324, 2002.
5. Evaporites could form without evaporation (Talk.Origins),
<creationwiki.
org/Evaporites_could_form_without_evaporation_(Talk.Origins)>;
accessed 16 September 2009.
6. Given the current salt content of sea water (3.5 % by weight)
and a specific gravity of NaCl (2,162 kg/m3). See Ullman’s
Encyclopedia of Technical Chemistry , ref. 2, p. 180.
7. James Hutton, Theory of the Earth , 1788, The Geological
Society Publishing House, Bath, UK, p. 29, 1997.
8. The name of this unique volcano means “Mountain of God” in
the local language, and is still active. It produces
natrocarbonatite lava, which is rich in the rare sodium and
potassium carbonate minerals, nyerereite (Na 2 Ca(CO 3 ) 2 ) and
gregoryite (Na 2 K 2 Ca(CO 3 )). The origin of the lava is
unknown. The volume of lava is relatively small compared with
the volume of haline magma that formed the huge salt deposits
around the world.
9. Warren, J.K., Evaporites — Sediments, Resources and
Hydrocarbons , Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, p. 44,
2006.
10. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:23–28
could be interpreted as an eyewitness report of a salt eruption.
The events described in Genesis were insufficient to produce a
10 km deep salt deposit, but this occurrence may have been
something like an aftershock or an expansion of the Great Rift
in a northern direction.
11. Ullman’s , ref. 2, p. 180.
#Post#: 113--------------------------------------------------
Re: Igneous Origin of Salt
By: Admin Date: February 5, 2017, 12:27 pm
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Does Salt Come from Evaporated Sea Water?
by John D. Morris, Ph.D. *
Seawater contains a variety of salts, and when seawater
evaporates, these solids are left behind. The most abundant salt
in seawater is sodium chloride (NaCl) which will be referred to
in this article simply as salt (technically it is called
halite).
Layers of salt occur naturally in the geologic record,
comprising an abundant source of salt for human consumption
worldwide. Today, some salt deposits are land derived, as when
salty water seeps from the rocks of Grand Canyon, evaporates and
leaves a salty residue. Others are related to enclosed coastal
lagoons, which fill up with seawater during a storm, but whose
waters are trapped and evaporate between storms. Thus, salt
deposits are classed as evaporites.
If a basin of seawater 100 feet thick were to evaporate, only
about 2 feet of salt would be left behind. Can seawater
evaporation account for all "evaporites"? If so, multiplied
millions of years would be necessary for their build up, for
some salt beds are extremely thick and wide. The salt deposits
often occur in layers covering thousands of square miles with
salt hundreds of feet thick.
Old earth uniformitarian thinking postulates an enclosed basin
or coastal lagoon which repeatedly floods and evaporates over
long periods of time, allowing thick deposits of salt to build
up. The mind boggles at huge basins undergoing identical cycles
of flooding and evaporation uncountable times, all the while
remaining in the same location for millions and millions of
years. By contrast, modern lagoons fill in, migrate, erode—there
is no long-term stability for coastal features.
The regionally extensive salt beds in the geologic record are
quite different from evaporites forming today. Seawater contains
many chemical and mineral impurities as well as both
single-celled and multi-celled plants and animals and any
exposed dry lagoon will be an active life zone. Thus, modern
evaporites are quite impure. But the major salt deposits in the
geologic record are absolutely pure salt! Salt mines simply
crush it and put it on the store shelf. Surely these large, pure
salt beds are not evaporated seawater. Some other process must
have formed them.
As with many features in geology, catastrophic views are
replacing the old, impotent uniformitarian ones. Many have
observed that the large salt accumulations occur in basins
formed by major tectonic downwarping, often associated with
ancient volcanic eruptions. The evidence does not fit with the
idea of a trapped lagoon. Where are the fossils? Where are the
impurities?
Many now think the salt was extruded in superheated,
supersaturated salt brines from deep in the earth along faults.
Once encountering the cold ocean waters, the hot brines could no
longer sustain the high concentrations of salt, which rapidly
precipitated out of solution, free of impurities and marine
organisms.
The great Flood of Noah's day provides the proper context.
During the Flood, great volumes of magma, water, metals, and
chemicals, were extruded onto the surface from the depths of the
earth, as the "fountains of the great deep" (Genesis 7:11)
spewed forth hot volcanic materials. Today we find them
(especially salt) interbedded with Flood sediments, just as the
"Back to Genesis" model predicts.
* Dr. Morris is President of the Institute for Creation
Research.
Cite this article: Morris, J. 2002. Does Salt Come from
Evaporated Sea Water? Acts & Facts. 31 (11).
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