The existence of deep marine hypersaline anoxic basins (DHAB) has been well-documented starting with the MedRiff Project in the Eastern Mediterranean. We suppose that there is analogy between the recent and ancient DHABs. This premise allows us to hypothesize that some methane accumulations in geological reservoirs may have been generated by historical euryhaline bacteria. The extreme life conditions of the bacteria and the facieses, as found in currently existing supersaturated salt brines DHABs, may have also existed in the geological past. Since salt basins overlap some of the most productive gas provinces, this article aims to introduce a new approach to salt and methane generation. It highlights the need to reconsider the classical approach to salt and methane generation due to new observations. Hereby we describe a new mechanism for DHAB generation due to membrane polarization. These phenomena generate a surface on which seawater of normal salinity meets the underneath brine of high salinity, and there is no diffusion between them. Hence we presume that non-crystalized, over-pressured, salty brine is the appropriate material to trap and host methane. Following overburden by deposited basin sediments, this viscous, gas-saturated brine can be an engine for diapir formation, which is prior to the crystalline phase. This new idea redefines our search for salt and methane deposits yet it requires further research and consideration, along with the new approach of salt diapir formation in specific salt basins.

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This short study aims to highlight contradictions in Ochsenius’s model for the basin-wide salt generation (Kara-Bogas bay desiccation). Without claiming completeness, and through numerous records cited from the specific literature, we attempt to point at crucial incoherencies in the classical evaporitic model. In our presupposition, these might have led our ancestors to conclude that basin-wide salt generation needs theoretically well-based models. This is emphatically true for the Transylvanian Basin,Romania.The selected records are basic for the specific topic. We checked their validity by logical reasoning and by literature references.As for salt generation, the classical Ochsenius model has been upheld for the generation of evaporates even though it has been known that there are records denying the exclusivity of the evaporation model. It has also been proven that deep-sea salt exists, yet terminology is reluctant to follow the new discoveries. If non-evaporitic salt generation exists, it entails that huge salt deposits may exist, which are not remnants of a desiccation process.These cannot be considered as part of the classical theory of evaporation.Former researchers left important but neglected records, which should have updated the model of Ochsenius by now. Well-documented historical observation uncovered some contradictions in the salt generation of the Transylvanian Basin, Romania.Hereby we list 10 important contradictions,which may reveal that the well-known theory of Ochsenius (i.e. drying of Kara Bogaz bay) ought to be challenged for the Transylvanian Basin.