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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
Journal of Sedimentary Research (SEPM)
Abstract
Criteria for the Recognition of Shallow-Perennial-Saline-Lake Halites Based on Recent Sediments From the Qaidam Basin, Western China
Kathryn A. Schubel (*), Tim K. Lowenstein
ABSTRACT
Recent sediments from the Qarhan Salt Plain consist of laminated siliciclastic muds (13-50 cm thick, devoid of mudcracks) overlain by halite (centimeter-scale) and interlayered mud (submillimeter- to centimeter-scale), termed mud-halite couplets, which represent one shallowing- and concentrating-upwards succession. Sediments of shallow perennial lakes consist of a basal laminated mud overlain by mud-halite couplets with dominantly conformable contacts. Halite layers are crystalline frameworks made up of halite cubes and chevrons. Mud-halite couplets with ubiquitous dissolution surfaces and heavily dissolution-modified halites make up saline-pan sediments and subaerially modified halites, respectively. This succession of sediments records the flooding and desiccation of a 200 km2 lake with waters depths of 2.2-3.0 m.
The lateral continuity of beds and the three-dimensional array of facies
show that this lake was filled by a combination of progradation and basin-wide
aggradation. Mud-rich and mud-poor packages can be traced for several kilometers
in the center of the Holocene lake, whereas units are less laterally continuous
on the margins of the lake, near the inflow zone. Syndepositional dissolution
pipes in halite layers suggest subaerial modification and are useful in
tracking lake expansion and contraction through time. Vertical successions
of structures and textures distinguish deposits of shallow perennial saline
lakes from deposits of ephemeral salt pans in the geologic record. Sediments
deposited in shallow, nonstratified, perennial saline lakes may be host
to one or more of the following: laterally continuous layers; muds undisrupted
by subaerial exposure; erosional channels; cumulate halite; vertically
bottom-grown halite; halite layers conformably draped by mud; and halite
layers truncated by nonuniformly spaced dissolution surfaces.
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