This volume illustrates the expanding knowledge of evaporites as important reservoir seals, fluid aquitards, ore-hosting sediments, and economically viable sediments in their own right. Researchers, oil and gas professionals, minerals resource professionals, environmental specialists and others within geology and the other earth sciences shall utilize the information within this book in their understanding of the many recent discoveries and concepts involved in the field of evaporite sedimentology.
Volume 6 of Reviews in Mineralogy was originated from notes prepared for a short course on Marine Minerals held in La Jolla, California, November 2-3, 1979. Chapters in this volume are devoted to marine manganese oxide, iron oxide, silica polymorphs, zeolite, clay, phosphorite, barite, evaporite, and placer minerals. Carbonates are not included; coverage of this important mineral group warrants a separate monograph. The extremely interesting sulfide and hydrothermal mineral assemblages recently discovered at oceanic spreading centers are also not discussed here. Marine Minerals was first published in 1979 as Volume 6 of the series entitled Short course. In 1980 the Mineralogical Society of America changed the name of the series to Reviews in Mineralogy, and for that reason this, the second printing of Marine Minerals has been reissued under the new banner. Only minor corrections have been made.
Sixty years ago the Louisiana Geological Survey published "Rock Salt. Its Origin. Geological Occurrences and Economic Importance in the' State of Louisiana, Together with Brief Notes and References to All Known Salt Deposits and Industries of the World" (Bull., 7, 1908, 259 pp.) by G. D. Harris, assisted by G. D. Maury and L. Reineke. The volume which follows is an equally ambitious project, carved out as a labor of love by Stanley J. Lefond, who began the work when he was a geologist with Diamond Alkali Company, Cleve land, Ohio, and finished it when he was a member of the geology staff of United States Borax & Chemical Corp., Los Angeles. Mr. Lefond has done a thorough job, taking full advantage of the discoveries (due in large part to exploration of the subsurface in the search for oil), expanded governmental coverage of mineral deposits, and improved communications, since 1908. The motivation for "The Handbook of World Salt Resources" was the First Symposium on Salt, held in Cleveland in May, 1962, which was sponsored and organized by the relatively young and dynamic Northern Ohio Geological Society. The user of this valuable compilation owes a debt of gratitude to that Society, to the Diamond Alkali Company which donated countless hours of Mr. Lefond's time, and above all, to author Stanley Lefond.
1919/28 cumulation includes material previously issued in the 1919/20-1935/36 issues and also material not published separately for 1927/28. 1929/39 cumulation includes material previously issued in the 1929/30-1935/36 issues and also material for 1937-39 not published separately.
"The papers in this volume illustrate unique, but often overlooked, geologic events of the last 300 million years. Rock outcrops and landscapes, ranging in age from Upper Pennsylvanian through the Anthropocene, are presented that address the following themes: cyclothems, a Permian salt giant, Midcontinent kimberlite intrusions, and Midcontinent glaciation"--
Volume 40 of Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry compiles and synthesizes current information on sulfate minerals from a variety of perspectives, including crystallography, geochemical properties, geological environments of formation, thermodynamic stability relations, kinetics of formation and dissolution, and environmental aspects. The first two chapters cover crystallography (Chapter 1) and spectroscopy (Chapter 2). Environments with alkali and alkaline earth sulfates are described in the next three chapters, on evaporites (Chapter 3), barite-celestine deposits (Chapter 4), and the kinetics of precipitation and dissolution of gypsum, barite, and celestine (Chapter 5). Acidic environments are the theme for the next four chapters, which cover soluble metal salts from sulfide oxidation (Chapter 6), iron and aluminum hydroxysulfates (Chapter 7), jarosites in hydrometallugy (Chapter 8), and alunite-jarosite crystallography, thermodynamics, and geochronology (Chapter 9). The next two chapters discuss thermodynamic modeling of sulfate systems from the perspectives of predicting sulfate-mineral solubilities in waters covering a wide range in composition and concentration (Chapter 10) and predicting interactions between sulfate solid solutions and aqueous solutions (Chapter 11). The concluding chapter on stable-isotope systematics (Chapter 12) discusses the utility of sulfate minerals in understanding the geological and geochemical processes in both high- and low-temperature environments, and in unraveling the past evolution of natural systems through paleoclimate studies. The review chapters in this volume were the basis for a short course on sulfate minerals sponsored by the Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) November 11-12, 2000 in Tahoe City, California, prior to the Annual Meeting of MSA, the Geological Society of America, and other associated societies in nearby Reno, Nevada. The conveners of the course (and editors of this volume of Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry), Alpers, John Jambor, and Kirk Nordstrom, also organized related topical sessions at the GSA meeting on sulfate minerals in both hydrothermal and low-temperature environments.