MODERN HALITE DEPOSITION IN THE DEAD SEA: FROM SUB-CRYSTAL TO BASIN SCALE AND FROM HOURLY TO DECADAL DEPOSITIONAL DYNAMICS. LESSONS FOR THICK HALITE SEQUENCES IN THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD (Invited Presentation)

Layered halite sequences were deposited in deep hypersaline basins throughout the geological record. These sequences are of research interest for hydrocarbon extraction, mineral exploration, tectonics and structural geology and paleoclimate research. Modern analogs and the processes leading to deposition of thick halite sequences were studied only through analyses of the common modern, shallow environments, which are fundamentally different in their nature from halite-depositing, deep waterbodies. Thus, the spatiotemporal evolution of halite sequences remained ambiguous. In this talk, I will present, a study on the active precipitation of halite layers at different spatial and temporal scales from the only modern analog in the world for deep, halite-precipitating basin; the hypersaline Dead Sea in Israel. This includes characterization and quantification of the impact of the seasonal thermohaline stratification and freshwater and sediment discharge on halite saturation and deposition, and on the characteristics and long-term accretion of halite sequences. In addition, throughout the talk, the implications of these results to the geological record will be presented.