Home▸Geology & Earth Science▸Evaporite Mineral Sequence Formation

🧂 Evaporite Mineral Sequence Formation

Simulate a restricted lagoon evaporating under intense heat and discover why limestone, gypsum, halite, and potash salts always precipitate in the same predictable order.

Geology & Earth Science3DModerate60 FPS🌍 Earth

The simulator models a shallow restricted lagoon undergoing progressive evaporation, tracking the concentration factor of seawater in real time and triggering mineral precipitation exactly when each salt's solubility threshold is crossed, reproducing the true chemically-ordered sequence of limestone, gypsum, halite, and potash salts.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

🎮 How to Use

Set the evaporation rate and basin inflow restriction, then run the simulation forward and watch the concentration factor climb on the readout. Pause at each threshold crossing to see which mineral begins precipitating and observe it accumulate as a distinct layer in the basin cross-section. Try stopping the evaporation early at different concentration factors to see which mineral layers form and which never appear, then compare the resulting stratigraphic column to real evaporite basin examples.

💡 Did You Know?

The Mediterranean Sea nearly evaporated completely dry around six million years ago during an event geologists call the Messinian salinity crisis, leaving behind evaporite deposits over a kilometer thick that are now buried beneath the modern seafloor, a discovery first made through offshore drilling that recovered exactly this predictable carbonate-gypsum-halite-potash sequence.

⚙ Under the hood

Simulate a restricted lagoon evaporating under intense heat and discover why limestone, gypsum, halite, and potash salts always precipitate in the same predictable order.

geologygeochemistryevaporitessedimentologysolubilityearth-sciencemineralogyeconomic-geology

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install