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Bromine content and Br/Cl molar ratio of halite in a core from Laos: implications for origin and environmental changes

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Abstract

Bromine (Br) is one of the trace elements in halite. Br content and the Br/chlorine (Cl) molar ratio can be used to reveal dry climates, the degree of evaporation, and/or brine concentration. The Br content of basal halite is more useful than that the Br content of halite from later stages when being used to distinguishing marine from nonmarine origins. Evaporite deposits on the Khorat Plateau (KP) have been a primary source of evaporites in southeastern Asia. The origin (i.e., marine, nonmarine, or a combination of the two) of these deposits is still disputed. In this study, we used the Br concentration of basal halite and the Br/Cl molar ratio to explore the origin of these deposits and the environmental changes that took place in the Late Cretaceous. We analyzed a total of 330 halite samples from borehole ZK2893 for cations (K+, Ca2+, Na+, and Mg2+) and anions (Br−, Cl−, and SO42−). The Br content ranged from 24.04 to 277.87 ppm, and the Br/Cl molar ratio ranged from 0.02 to 0.27 ppm. The low Br content (24.04 ppm) and Br × 103/Cl molar ratio (0.02) of the basal halite suggested that no marine water was in the basin when the halite precipitation began. The temporal variations in the Br content and the Br × 103/Cl molar ratio of halite implied that: (1) the climate in this area during the Late Cretaceous was dry, with two dry stages occurring from 92 to 85 Ma and from 80 to 72 Ma; and (2) the drying trend increased from 92 to 85 Ma and from 80 to 72 Ma, with two extremely dry events occurring during the periods 89–85 Ma and 76–73 Ma.

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Fig. 1

Black circles—from El Tabakh et al. (1999); red circles—from Hite and Japakasetr (1979)

Fig. 2

The Paleomagnetic ages are from Zhang et al. (2018)

Fig. 3
Fig. 4

The data in triangles are from Tan et al. (2010) and Qi (2010)

Fig. 5

The red dots show modern seawater and are from Siemann (2003)

Fig. 6
Fig. 7

This curve was predicted by Hardie (1996); the circles are fluid inclusions in marine halite (solid circles = analyses; open circles = assumption) from Horita et al. (2002)

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant no. 2017YFC0602803), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant nos. XDA20070201 and XDA20070101), the International Cooperation Project (Grant no. 131C11KYSB20160072) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 41620104002). We thank Dr. Zan JB, Dr. Yang YB and Chen Y for their work in drilling the Core ZK2893. We thank LetPub (http://www.letpub.com) for providing linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS, Beijing, 100085, China

    Shurui Sun & Minghui Li

  2. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Minghui Li, Maodu Yan, Xiaomin Fang & Xiaoming Liu

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shurui Sun & Xiaomin Fang

  4. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Depositional Minerals, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266590, China

    Minghui Li

  5. Key Laboratory of Continental Collision and Plateau Uplift, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS, Beijing, 100085, China

    Maodu Yan & Xiaomin Fang

  6. Key Laboratory of Alpine Ecology and Biodiversity (LAEB), CAS, Beijing, 100101, China

    Gengxin Zhang

  7. Institute of Mineral Deposit, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, 100037, China

    Zengjie Zhang

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  1. Shurui Sun
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Correspondence to Minghui Li.

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Sun, S., Li, M., Yan, M. et al. Bromine content and Br/Cl molar ratio of halite in a core from Laos: implications for origin and environmental changes. Carbonates Evaporites 34, 1107–1115 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13146-019-00508-0

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