Saline mudflat

Lacustrine deposits (a) perennial saline lake, (b) salt crust or saline pan, (c) saline mudflat, (d) dry mudflat and (e) shoreline commonly arranged in sequence outwards from the centre of a lake basin (Figure 10.3B and Figure 10.4). 

The various playa environments include a central salt crust or saline pan, composed of dry salt, commonly halite (Figure 10.3D, E), but in some cases trona (Eugster, 1970), gypsum (Stoertz and Ericksen, 1974) or other sulphates such as mirabilite, epsomite or bloedite. The saline mudflat is typically moist clay to silt with surface salt efflorescences and intrasediment (displacive) evaporite minerals. In some systems, these may be zoned on a broad scale, with more-soluble minerals towards the lowest central portion of the mudflat, caused by groundwater evaporation gradients (e.g. Saline Valley, California Hardie, 1968). 

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