evaporite Geol.
(ɪˈvæpəraɪt)
[f. evaporate n.: see -ite1.]
A deposit of sodium chloride or other salts resulting from the evaporation of a body of water.
| 1924 C. P. Berkey in Bull. N.Y. State Mus. CCLI. 116 The genetic idea is carried better if the product of evaporation were called an evaporate, as Doctor Grabau does in his work on Salt Deposits, and the product of reaction by mixing were called a reactionate. Perhaps one could write them evaporite and reactionite. 1949 Mineral. Mag. XXVIII. 621 (heading) The lower evaporite bed. 1965 A. Holmes Princ. Physical Geol. (ed. 2) iv. 78 Salt deposits (evaporites), such as are left behind when salt lakes dry up, or when enclosed bodies of sea water are strongly evaporated. 1967 Oceanogr. & Marine Biol. V. 131 Evaporite sediments of Mississippian age have caused similar uplift in nearby Nova Scotia. |
Hence evapoˈritic a., pertaining to, characteristic of, an evaporite.
| 1951 Jrnl. Sedimentary Petrol. XXI. 75/1 In the upper Gulf Coast area, evaporites occur in the Ferry Lake, with showings of gypsum and evaporitic dolomite on the outcrop near Austin. 1969 Daily Tel. 13 Jan. 10/7 An evaporitic area is an arid region where evaporation prevails. |