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Origin of salt giants in abyssal serpentinite systems

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Abstract

Worldwide marine salt deposits ranging over the entire geological record are generally considered climate-related evaporites, derived from the precipitation of salts (mainly chlorides and sulfates) from saturated solutions driven by solar evaporation of seawater. This explanation may be realistic for a salt thickness ≤100 m, being therefore inadequate for thicker (>1 km) deposits. Moreover, sub-seafloor salt deposits in deep marine basins are difficult to reconcile with a surface evaporation model. Marine geology reports on abyssal serpentinite systems provide an alternative explanation for some salt deposits. Seawater-driven serpentinization consumes water and increases the salinity of the associated aqueous brines. Brines can be trapped in fractures and cavities in serpentinites and the surrounding ‘country’ rocks. Successive thermal dehydration of buried serpentinites can mobilize and accumulate the brines, forming highly saline hydrothermal solutions. These can migrate upwards and erupt onto the seafloor as saline geysers, which may form salt-saturated water pools, as are currently observed in numerous deeps in the Red Sea and elsewhere. The drainage of deep-seated saline brines to seafloor may be a long-lasting, effective process, mainly occurring in areas characterized by strong tectonic stresses and/or igneous intrusions. Alternatively, brines could be slowly expelled from fractured serpentinites by buoyancy gradients and, hence, separated salts/brines could intrude vertically into surrounding rocks, forming salt diapirs. Serpentinization is an ubiquitous, exothermic, long-lasting process which can modify large volumes of oceanic lithosphere over geological times. Therefore, buried salt deposits in many areas of the world can be reasonably related to serpentinites.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge many thanks to R.J. Bodnar for his helpful comments and suggestions. Comments by three anonymous Referees and the Editor were also helpful to improve this paper. We are grateful to M. Wilkinson for his revision of the English language of an early draft of the manuscript. This research was financially supported by Università di Catania, FIR 2014 cod. 2F119B, to VS and SC.

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  1. Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Catania, Corso Italia 57, 95129, Catania, Italy

    Vittorio Scribano, Serafina Carbone & Fabio C. Manuella

  2. Tech Team Solutions, 4035, Stavanger, Norway

    Martin Hovland

  3. Independent Geology and Petroleum Engineering Consultant, 7041, Trondheim, Norway

    Håkon Rueslåtten & Hans-K. Johnsen

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Correspondence to Vittorio Scribano.

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Scribano, V., Carbone, S., Manuella, F.C. et al. Origin of salt giants in abyssal serpentinite systems. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 106, 2595–2608 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-017-1448-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-017-1448-y

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