The salt rock or also known as rock salt It belongs to the fascinating group of chemical sedimentary rocks that are formed by processes of evaporation of waters enriched in mineral salts, in arid and semi-arid environments, oceanic waters and saline lakes.
It is also known by the name of halite ore, in fact rock salt is 100% halite. Salt rock is often extracted to be used in the chemical industry, for soil treatment, for animal feed and above all to make the salt with which we make food.
Properties and characteristics of rock salt
Chemical composition
Rock salt or salt stone is made up of 100% sodium chloride, which is commonly known as salt. In mineralogy, the name given to this rock is halite, a mineral that has been formed in arid environments by evaporation processes of water enriched in mineral salts.
Texture and structure
This rock often occurs in sub-horizontal strata together with other minerals of evaporitic origin such as sylvite, calciteand the cast, all of them being equally minerals of chemical origin.
The texture of the salt rock is usually crystalline, and often these crystals can appear granular, compact and even cubic, taking the main form of halite.
rock salt color
The natural color of the salt rock is generally white to colorless transparent, however, it can present various impurities of metal ions that give it other shades such as red, yellow and cream.
How is rock salt formed?
Rock salt is formed due to evaporation processes of waters rich in sodium and rich in chloride in arid and semi-arid environments, therefore they belong to the group of chemical sedimentary rocks and specifically to evaporite rocks.
Explanation : In these arid and semi-arid environments, the waters are usually enriched in mineral salts and ions that will later be part of the salt rock. For this rock to form, what happens is that the water evaporates and chemically deposits minerals such as calcite, gypsum, sylvite and also halite. The accumulation of halite is what forms rock salt..
Over geologic time, several huge salt deposits have formed when repeated episodes of seawater evaporation occurred in restricted basins.
Sedimentary geological environment
For the salt rock formation process to take place, it must occur in arid geological environments where salt water accumulates, for example, lagoon environments near the beach, ancient oceans, saline lakes, and all of them in hot environments. dry and arid.
Rock Salt Uses
Rock salt has many known uses. In countries where there is a lot of snow, the salt rock is crushed in order to control the accumulation of ice on the roads during the winter.
It is also well known that the salt that comes from the processing of rock salt is an essential nutrient in the diet of human beings and also in the diet of animals. This rock of salt is highly sought after in the livestock industry.
Finally it is used in the chemical industry to produce various chemical and pharmaceutical products.
How to identify rock salt?
As mentioned, this rock usually appears associated with gypsum, calcite, silvite, carnallite and other rocks of evaporitic origin that are usually very similar. However, the salt stone is distinguished due to its distinguished salty flavor, also because the halite crystals that make it up are usually perfectly cubic.