Sedimentation sequence of a high-temperature silica-rich hot spring: evidence from isothermal evaporation experiments and from petrology and mineralogy of sinters

A Comprehensive Methodology for Monitoring Evaporitic Mineral Precipitation and Hydrochemical Evolution of Saline Lakes: The Case of Lake Magadi Soda Brine (East African Rift Valley, Kenya)

“…In this work, we present a methodology for in situ studies of sequential evaporation/crystallization of brines from soda lakes in the African Rift Valley. The knowledge of the mineral precipitation sequence in saline and soda lakes is crucial to understanding the hydrochemical evolution of brines, paleoenvironmental conditions (e.g., temperature, pCO 2 ) of the evaporite deposits in the geological record, scaling in geothermal power facilities, and implications for industrial crystallization of these materials. − The assemblage of sodium carbonate minerals precipitated from soda brines are also important for constraining the geochemical conditions of soda oceans in Precambrian Earth, when life is thought to have originated, and other Earth-like planets. , …”