Abstract
The coastal sabkhas of the western Gulf of Sirte, Libya developed in two stages behind a barrier-ridge complex following the penultimate and the last major sea-level rises. A strong north-to-south littoral drift led to the isolation of coastal lagoons by a seaward sand ridge following the stabilization of sea level and produced isolated basins in which evaporites have been and are depositing. A sulphur isotopic study of the groundwaters and sediments described here demonstrated that the brines mostly originated in continental groundwaters supplied from the deep aquifer by surface and sub-surface flows which carry sulphate and other ions remobilized from Cretaceous sediments.
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Rouse, J., Sherif, N. Major evaporite deposition from groundwater remobilized salts. Nature 285, 470–472 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/285470a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/285470a0
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