Sedimentology (2000) 47, 99118

Surface and subsurface sedimentary structures produced by salt crusts

TIMOTHY M . GOODALL*, COLIN P. NORTH and KENNETH W. GLENN IE Department of Geology and Petroleum Geology, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, Scotland, UK (E-mail: c.p.north@aberdeen.ac.uk)
ABSTRACT

The growth and subsequent dissolution of salts on or within sediment may alter sedimentary structures and textures to such an extent that it is difcult to identify the depositional origin of that sediment and, as a result, the sediment may be misinterpreted. To help to overcome such problems with investigating ancient successions, results are presented from a comprehensive study of the morphology and fabrics of three large areas of modern salt ats in SE Arabia: the Sabkhat Matti inland region and the At Taf coastal region, both in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the Umm as Samim region in Oman. These salt ats are affected by tidal-marine, alluvial and aeolian depositional processes and include both clastic- and carbonate-dominated surcial sediments. The eforescent and precipitated salt crusts in these areas can be grouped into two main types: thick crusts, with high relief (>10 cm) and a polygonal or blocky morphology; or thin crusts, with low relief (<10 cm) and a polygonal or blister-like appearance. The thin crusts may assume the surface morphology of underlying features, such as ripples or biogenic mats. A variety of small-scale textures were observed: pustular growths, hair-like spikes and irregular wrinkles. Evolution of these crusts over time results in a variety of distinctive sedimentary fabrics produced by salt-growth sediment deformation, salt-solution sediment collapse, sediment aggradation and compound mixtures of these processes. Salt-crust processes produce features that may be confused with aeolian adhesion structures. An example from the Lower Triassic Ormskirk Sandstone Formation of the Irish Sea Basin demonstrates how this knowledge of modern environments improves the interpretation of the rock record. A distinctive wavy-laminated facies in this formation had previously been interpreted as the product of uvial sheetoods modied by soft-sediment deformation and bioturbation. Close inspection of laminations seen in core reveals many of the same sedimentary fabrics seen in SE Arabia associated with salt crusts. This facies is the product of salt growth on aeolian sediment and is not of uvial origin. 1 Keywords Adhesion ripples, adhesion warts, evaporites, playa, sabkha.

INTRODUCTION Salts, especially halite, commonly have only a short-lived existence at or near the surface, yet their growth on or within the sediment may so
*Present address: Production Geoscience Ltd, North Deeside Road, Banchory, Kincardineshire AB31 5YR, Scotland, UK (E-mail: tgoodall@pgl-banchory.com)
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greatly modify pre-existing sedimentary structures as to make recognition of the primary genesis of the sediment extremely difcult. However, it is suggested by the present authors that, with a full knowledge of the formation of modern salt crusts, it is relatively straightforward to identify the original depositional processes. For example, it has been possible to recognize that successions with enigmatic wavy lamination, 99

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T. M. Goodall et al. Valley and Death Valley, California, USA, where the salt ats are situated in hydrologically closed intermontane basins surrounded by alluvial fans. This paper aims to extend and complement the account of Smoot & Castens-Seidell (1994). The salt ats studied in this paper experience a great variety of sedimentary processes (tidal-marine, alluvial and aeolian), as well as a range of groundwater geochemistries, and include both clastic-dominated and carbonate-dominated substrates. Use of the descriptive term salt at is preferred by the present authors instead of the Arabic word `sabkha' or the Spanish word `playa', although both these terms are commonly used in the geological literature to describe saltencrusted plains. The terms sabkha and playa have been given geological denitions that are at variance with their literal translations, and their usage is subject to confusion (Goodall & AlBelushi, 1997). Similarly, the term saline pan is avoided, because of conicting denitions (Shaw & Thomas, 1997). Excluded from this study are those regions where there is signicant net preservation of salt deposits (e.g. Lowenstein & Hardie, 1985), for there will be plenty of direct evidence in the rock record from which to interpret their genesis. GEOMORPHOLOGICAL SETTING OF THE SALT FLATS The dominant wind system today across the Arabian Peninsula is the winter `Shamal', which blows to the south and then SW. The major dune systems in Arabia owe their origin to a wind system that followed much the same orientation (Glennie, 1994) before the rise in sea level in the Arabian Gulf that followed the last glacial maximum cut off the supply of aeolian sediment to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Flooding of the At Taf coastal strip (formerly known as the Trucial Coast) has produced the classic supratidal salt ats (Evans et al., 1964; Kinsman, 1969) (Fig. 2a). The coastal region inland from the supratidal salt ats is being progressively deated, leaving a lag of coarse-grained sandsheets and slipfaceless dunes. A new system of small dunes is being created and advancing inland and downwind, beginning near the coast as barchans, but changing downwind into linear forms and, eventually, piling up against the older transverse megadunes in the southern part of the UAE (Glennie, 1994, 1998; Bristow et al., 1996; Pugh, 1997).

originally interpreted as dewatered alluvial deposits, are actually inland salt-at sediments deposited by aeolian processes with contemporaneous salt crust growth. This is the case for parts of the Lower Triassic Sherwood Sandstone Group of offshore NW England (Cowan, 1993; Herries & Cowan, 1997) and parts of the Lower Permian Rotliegend Group in the North Sea (Goodall, 1995). In these particular examples, which are reservoirs for hydrocarbon gas, the change in understanding of the origin of these facies has profound implications for planning the exploitation of the gas. A review of the salt crusts and related sedimentary structures developed on three extensive areas of modern salt ats in SE Arabia is presented here: the Sabkhat Matti region, within the Emirate of Abu Dhabi from the coast to the Saudi Arabian border, the At Taf coastal region of Abu Dhabi Emirate to the east of Sabkhat Matti, and the Umm as Samim region in Oman (Fig. 1). Sabkhat Matti is the largest area of continuous inland salt ats in Arabia. This study demonstrates that salt crusts within uvial or aeolian sediments produce distinctive sedimentary fabrics. Examples of salt crust-related sedimentary structures in the literature are often fragmentary, mineral-specic (e.g. Watson, 1983) or locationspecic (e.g. Fryberger et al., 1983). Smoot & Castens-Seidell (1994) published an exemplary account of sedimentary features produced by salt crusts, drawing extensively on examples in Saline

Fig. 1. Location and setting of the study areas. SM, Sabkhat Matti; UaS, Umm as Samim; AD, Abu Dhabi city; UAE, United Arab Emirates.

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Fig. 2. (a) Geomorphological setting of Sabkhat Matti (the area left and centre of the diagram) and the At Taf coastal regions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), showing the main sediment types at the surface. (b) Approximate distribution of the main crust macromorphologies in the Sabkhat Matti region, derived from Landsat imagery and checked by ground observations.

The exact origin of the Sabkhat Matti depression is unclear. The west margin has a pronounced linear geometry, which is parallel to the strike of the Qatar arch, suggesting structural

control, but major faults are not evident from seismic sections through this area (Goodall, 1995). Large palaeochannels, which have along them archaeological evidence for wetter times (McClure, 1984), converge on Sabkhat Matti from across Saudi Arabia (Anton, 1984; Dabbagh et al., 1998). Interbedded conglomerates and sands of uvial origin, with northward-directed trough cross-bedding, are found in the northern part of Sabkhat Matti (Fig. 2a). The sands have yielded luminescence ages of 40 and 147 ka, undoubtedly in the Quaternary and so not related to the clearly alluvial sediments of Miocene age that are exposed on the coast (Goodall, 1995; Bristow & Hill, 1998). The alluvial gravels are now mostly covered by a veneer of aeolian sand, and postglacial sea-level rise has produced a groundwater rise leading to cementation of the alluvial gravels by evaporites. The very low gradients in the Sabkhat Matti and At Taf regions allow storm-driven marine ooding to reach inland typically up to 2 km beyond the limit of normal high spring tides, and ooding occurs further inland after occasional heavy winter rain. This ooding gives rise to shallow ponds of brine, which persist for a few weeks each winter until the water evaporates. Evaporation to dryness of these brines results in thick (15 cm), residual salt crusts, which characterize the surface of large areas of the supratidal salt ats. In the Sabkhat Matti region, the supratidal salt ats grade southwards into inland salt ats with no distinct break. The inland salt ats extend southwards for about 130 km and, in this distance, the land surface rarely rises more than 80 m above sea level (Fig. 2a). There is little information available on rainfall for the inland areas of Sabkhat Matti, but measurements taken on the coast show that average annual rainfall is less than 40 mm. The Umm as Samim salt ats in Oman have a very different geomorphological setting (Fig. 3a). Fringing the Oman Mountains, which rise to over 3000 m above sea level, are extensive alluvial fans. To the south of the mountains is a broad deation plain of at-lying Miocene and older marine strata, much of which is covered with deation lag gravels. The salt ats of Umm as Samim occur in a low-lying area between the alluvial fans to the north, the aeolian dunes of the Rub' Al Khali to the west and south, and the deation plain to the east. The main source of water to Umm as Samim is subterranean ow through the Umm Er Radhuma limestone, a

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T. M. Goodall et al. Saline and Death Valleys in California (Smoot & Castens-Seidell, 1994), but it differs markedly in scale. The Umm as Samim salt ats are over an order of magnitude larger than the salt ats of the USA rift basins (see inset in Fig. 3a), and the fringing alluvial fans are up to two orders of magnitude larger in downdip width. SALT CRUST GENESIS Salt crusts form by two main processes, eforescence and precipitation. We believe that it is useful to discriminate between these two, because the process substantively controls the morphology of the resultant crust. Eforescent crusts accumulate by direct crystallization onto sediment grains as a result of the evaporation of brine adhering to those grains. The brine may be groundwater drawn up by capillary forces, or may result from dew or ocean spray. Salts nucleate directly onto substrate, either at the sedimentair interface or within sediment pores, and the result is generally a powdery or puffy texture (hence, the term eforescence, from the Latin for blossoming or owering). Precipitated crusts form by the evaporation to dryness of ephemeral ponds of rainwater or storm-driven marine brines. Salts crystallize within the progressively concentrating brine, usually at the waterair interface, and then fall to the bottom of the ponded brine to form a layered crust. Both processes occur in the saline pan model of Lowenstein & Hardie (1985), with the precipitated crusts forming beneath standing water, and eforescent crusts forming on areas exposed to the air. The salt that ends up in the saline crusts of the study area may be sourced in several different ways. Groundwater is commonly already rich in solutes before reaching the salt ats. Along the coastline, groundwater chemistry approaches marine water compositions, and sea water may be driven directly onto the land by storms, both as surface oods and as aerosol sprays. Meteoric waters, rain or dew, may become enriched in two ways. When water collects in ephemeral ponds, it fully or partially dissolves any pre-existing crusts and so forms a concentrated brine when it evaporates. Such brines have a composition that is highly modied because of the fractional dissolution of the older crusts (Kendall, 1984). In addition, salt may arrive as windblown dust (Wood & Sanford, 1995). The important features that distinguish inland salt ats, such as those of Sabkhat Matti, from

Fig. 3. (a) Geomorphological setting of Umm as Samim (UaS) in northern Oman, showing the main sediment types at the surface. Inset top right: Death Valley, California, USA, at the same scale as the main diagram. (b) Approximate distribution of the main crust macromorphologies in the Umm as Samim region, derived from Landsat imagery and checked by ground observations.

Tertiary unit that underlies much of Oman (Al Lamki & Terken, 1996). Recharge to this aquifer, and hence ow into Umm as Samim, is partly from the Oman Mountains in the north, but mostly from the Dhofar Mountains over 500 km to the south (Macumber et al., 1998). In its setting, Umm as Samim bears some similarities to the inland drainage rift basins of

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Table 1. Types of salt crust observed in SE Arabia (see also Fig. 4). 1. High relief (>10 cm) thick salt crusts 2. Low relief (<10 cm) thin salt crusts (a) polygonal (b) blocky: (i) saucer-shaped (ii) slab-like

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(a) polygonal (b) blister (c) imitative (i) rippled (subaqueous) eforescent crusts: (ii) biogenic mat

supratidal salt ats are (Patterson & Kinsman, 1981; Hardie, 1984): (1) The inland salt ats are beyond the inuence of marine ooding and the associated shoreface deposition of carbonate sediments. The groundwater is dominated by meteoric, continental chemistries. (2) The supratidal ats experience mixing of marine waters from coastal ooding with meteoric, continental groundwaters. This gives rise to mixed groundwater chemistries. The supratidal salt ats are more susceptible to ooding and have thicker white or grey salt crusts as a result of the large volume of halite (crusts up to 35 cm thick) precipitated at the surface from supersaturated standing brines. Areas that are slightly elevated near the coast (as a result of preexisting topography) also have salt crusts, but they tend to be covered by water only during severe oods. Here, the crusts are dominantly eforescent and thinner, and can be grey in colour where they incorporate detrital carbonate sediments during their formation. The saline minerals either accumulate as surface crusts or form within the surface sediments as displacive cements. Growth of surface crusts by eforescence may continue long after all surface water has been evaporated. Groundwater may discharge at the surface from natural springs and seeps, and because of concentration near the surface as a result of evapotranspiration. Evaporative pumping is the term given by Hsu & Siegenthaler (1969) to the process whereby saline groundwater brines are drawn up because a hydraulic gradient is created by surface evaporation. The process has been demonstrated experimentally by Hsu & Siegenthaler (1969), but it is hard to prove its viability in the eld. Macumber (1991) argues that evaporation will only cause drawdown of the water table and that regional ow paths are dened by the hydraulic head in the aquifer system. The inland salt ats of the Sabkhat Matti region are rarely ooded, and they are subsequently

characterized by thin (<1 cm), eforescent salt crusts that accumulate from the evaporation of saline groundwater. The crusts are usually brown in colour, because they incorporate a high proportion of sand, silt and clay during their formation. In some inland parts of Sabkhat Matti, groundwater issues at the surface as small springs, which may locally result in thicker crusts of precipitated salt. SALT CRUST MORPHOLOGIES A wide variety of salt crusts have been recognized in SE Arabia. In attempting to classify crust types, we have tried to keep the number of divisions to a minimum, yet still reect the variation in genesis and signicant differences in sedimentary fabric. Where possible, the descriptive terminology of Smoot & Castens-Seidell (1994) has been adopted. At the macroscale, the amount of topographic relief, measured laterally over distances of a few tens of centimetres to metres, increases with the thickness of the salt crust. The crusts can be grouped into thick crusts with high surface relief (>10 cm) and thin crusts with low surface relief (<10 cm) (Table 1, Fig. 4). At the microscale, there are four signicant styles of surface texture (Table 2, Fig. 5). The spatial distribution in the study areas of the main crust macromorphology types is shown in summary in Figs 2b and 3b, which are based on interpretation of Landsat imagery calibrated by ground surveys. It must be noted that these maps are approximations only, and the distribution is subject to seasonal change. The scale of these maps does not allow the ner detail and distribution of specic morphological subtypes to be shown. Comparing the crust type distributions (Figs 2b and 3b) with the maps showing depositional substrate on which the crusts have formed (Figs 2a and 3a) reveals that substrate has little effect on crust morphology, and that geomorphological setting is the dominant controlling factor.

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Fig. 4. Macromorphology of the salt crusts. ac are high-relief thick crusts: (a) polygonal (scale: spade on left); (b) blocky, saucer-shaped; (c) blocky, slab-like. dg are lowrelief thin crusts: (d) polygonal (scale: 25-cm bar at lower right); (e) blister (scale: coin 25 cm at lower right); (f) imitative after subaqueous ripples (scale: 25-cm bar at lower left); (g) imitative after biogenic mat.

High-relief, thick salt crusts

Thick salt crusts with large surface relief (>10 cm) are produced dominantly by precipitation, but are modied by eforescence. In the Sabkhat Matti region, they occur only in areas where the water table is high and that are susceptible to ooding

after sporadic heavy rainfall. This generally restricts them to a zone, parallel to the coast, between the supratidal ats and up to about 20 km inland. In contrast, thick, high-relief crusts are very common across the Umm as Samim salt ats, even though this region is seldom subjected to surface ooding. These salt ats receive large
Table 2. Types of micromorphology of the salt crusts.

`Popcorn' surfaces Hairy, eforescent surface halite Salt crust wrinkles Small-scale erosional structures:

microyardangs ribs (truncated cross-bedding)

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Fig. 5. Micromorphology of the salt crusts. (a) `Popcorn' surface. (b) Hairy, eforescent surface halite. (c) Salt crust wrinkles. (d) Small-scale erosional features microyardangs. (e) Small-scale erosional features ribs (truncated cross-bedding) (scale: hammer at lower right).

volumes of brine from below by the discharge into the region of groundwaters owing under artesian pressure through the underlying Umm er Radhuma Limestone (Macumber et al., 1998). Two types of high-relief, thick salt crusts have been distinguished: polygonal crusts and blocky crusts. The variations in morphology of such crusts primarily reect the maturity of the crust and the amount of time it has been developing. The development sequence can be seen in a variety of stages by comparing the crusts developed on fresh substrate after seismic survey tracks have been bulldozed across Umm as Samim.

Polygonal crusts
The initial development of high-relief crusts, composed principally of halite, is into a distinctive pattern of ridges that are polygonal in plan form (Fig. 4a). The diameter of the polygons usually ranges from 1 m to 4 m. The formation of these crusts begins when the salt ats are ooded by either heavy rainfall or marine ooding, or where there is a high rate of groundwater discharge. Evaporation causes the brines to become supersaturated with salts, mainly halite. Halite begins to crystallize on the surface of the brine pool as rafts of laterally

linked tabular crystals or hoppers (Dellwig, 1955). The crystal rafts may be blown to the edges of the pools or may become too heavy to oat and sink to the bottom (Handford, 1991). Those that sink form the nuclei for the growth of cubic halite crystals. As the brine continues to evaporate, the pools become shallower, and wind-induced waves may cause the crystals on the bottom to be worked into straight-crested, symmetrical ripples. By the time the brines have completely evaporated, a loose aggregate of up to 3 cm of halite rafts may have accumulated on the oor of the pool. This crust is initially planar, and the individual crystals are clearly visible but, after a few weeks, the original cubic form of the surface crystals is lost through dissolution by desert dew and through abrasion by wind-blown sediment. Shearman (1970) noticed that repeated phases of ooding and desiccation on salt ats causes the halite crusts to develop characteristic crystal textures: chevron-shaped trails of uid inclusions mark crystal growth surfaces, which are disrupted by irregular dissolution cavities (Fig. 6), although chevron texture in halite is not unequivocally diagnostic of growth at the surface (Chipley & Kyser, 1994). The crystals form layers, separated by truncation surfaces that may in some places be

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T. M. Goodall et al. sediment to be able to enter, purely by desiccation. This is because porewater within precipitated halite would be NaCl-saturated, and any further loss of water would precipitate yet more halite, so sealing any void. Continued precipitation of halite within a bed would lead to a net expansion of the surface layer and cause the bed to buckle into tepee structures. Tucker (1981) also argued that, although fractures are common in the crests of salt tepees and over-riding can occur, the boundaries between tepees are essentially closed, which would not allow deep penetration of sediment from above as he observed in the Triassic examples. The debate is further clouded by a recent paper (Muller, 1998) that uses a desiccation analogue model (in a starch medium) to investigate polygons clearly of thermal origin (in basalts). More fundamental work is required. The present study produced no new data to resolve this matter. It did conrm that, after initial fracturing, growth of eforescent salt crystals or inclusion of sediment in the fractures creates a space problem during subsequent expansion (thermal or hydration), so inhibiting lateral movement and causing the crust to buckle upwards and rupture into irregular, salt-thrust polygons. During repeated cycles of this process, the polygon edges are forced upwards into dramatic tepee structures or pressure ridges.

Fig. 6. Photomicrograph of salt crust from NW Sabkhat Matti showing chevron-textured, uid inclusions from periods of crystal growth and dissolution cavities from times of ooding of the salt ats. Scale: bar at lower right is 1 mm.

marked with a thin layer of mud. Such surfaces represent a period of desiccation that was followed by a ood event. Although the salt crusts are initially white, wind-blown dust soon starts to adhere to the damp hygroscopic surfaces of the halite crystals, resulting in the crust turning darker with age. White, eforescent halite commonly forms along the margins of some of the polygons and in the polygonal fractures caused by the evaporation of groundwater brine drawn up to the surface by capillary pressure. The eforescent halite is very ne grained and has a porous, powdery, texture. As elucidated by others before us, the polygonal pattern is the result of fracturing as a result of volume reduction brought about by either thermal contraction or desiccation. By analogy with polygon formation in periglacial settings and basalt columns, thermal contraction is the preferred causative agent of some workers (e.g. Lachenbruch, 1962; Tucker, 1981). Comparison with polygonal cracks in clay soils, which undoubtedly form as a result of water removal (producing collapse of the clay mineral crystal lattices) (Abuhejleh & Znidarcic, 1995; Konrad & Ayad, 1997), has stimulated others to attribute the occurrence of this phenomenon in salt crusts to a desiccation origin (e.g. Neal et al., 1968). Tucker (1981) argued strongly against a desiccation origin for the sediment-lled ssures he observed up to 6 m deep in Triassic salts in NW England. He reasoned that it is impossible to form a truly open crack in salt, of the type needed for

Blocky crusts
If the high-relief polygonal salt crusts are allowed to develop uninterrupted for a number of years, they eventually produce a high-relief blocky surface, features also described by others before us (Hunt & Washburn, 1966; Stocklin, 1968; Stoertz & Ericksen, 1974; Eugster & Hardie, 1978). The continuing precipitation of eforescent salt along the margins of some of the polygons causes them to form thick, saucer-shaped slabs of salt (Fig. 4b). Further growth of the eforescent salt can up-end and even overturn some sections of these polygonal slabs, so that the crust eventually assumes a rough blocky morphology (Fig. 4c). Small stalactites of halite are common on the undersides of the overhanging slabs. High-relief, blocky salt crusts are common in the central region of the Umm as Samim, but they are absent in the Sabkhat Matti region. This is probably because of the difference in geomorphic context and a consequent difference in the time between `disturbance' events. The high-relief polygonal salt crusts in Sabkhat Matti are partially dissolved most years by either rainfall inland or

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Salt crust sedimentary structures marine ooding near the coast. This prevents their further development into high-relief blocky salt crusts. In contrast, in the Umm as Samim, the salt crusts are seldom subjected to surface ooding but, instead, receive large volumes of brine from below. In the Umm as Samim, these high-relief blocky salt crusts can reach thicknesses of up to 15 m (Heathcote & King, 1998). Smoot & Castens-Seidell (1994) recognized another type of high-relief salt crust in Saline Valley and Death Valley, USA, up to 1 m thick, with 4050 cm of surface relief consisting of closely spaced irregular pinnacles and deep pits. These highly irregular surfaces are characteristic of especially thick salt crusts and are likely to be the result of selective dissolution by rain. Rainwater collects and enlarges small depressions in the surface of the crust, resulting in a deeply pitted appearance (Kendall, 1992). Crusts with this type of morphology have not been observed in either the Sabkhat Matti region or Oman.

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Low-relief, thin salt crusts

In the Sabkhat Matti region, thin salt crusts with a surface relief of less than 10 cm are the most widespread crust type, but they are much less common around Umm as Samim, where they are restricted to the margins of the salt ats. Such crusts are usually less than 1 cm thick and have a high proportion of included sediment and adhering aeolian dust, which makes them dark-coloured (brown or grey). Seasonal rain causes these crusts to dissolve partially, and the ensuing evaporation leads to the precipitation of small patches of white salts in hollows on the crust surface. After a few months, the white salt is darkened again by adhering dust. The surfaces of the crusts are typically very irregular and variable in relief. In Sabkhat Matti, the different crust morphologies are not exclusive to particular areas, but tend to have a patchy distribution. The reason for this characteristic is not known, but it is probably linked to variations in local groundwater discharge. In some areas, the different crust types pass abruptly from one to another over distances of a few metres. Three types of low-relief, thin salt crusts have been distinguished: polygonal crusts, blister crusts and imitative eforescent crusts.

small diameters of 1030 cm (Fig. 4d). The diameter of the polygons probably varies with the thickness of the salt crust, because the thickness affects the mechanical strength of the crust. Such variations in diameter are also seen in desiccation cracks in muds. As observed also by Smoot & Castens-Seidell (1994), the smallest diameter polygonal salt crusts correlate with sand-rich salt ats. In Sabkhat Matti, the low-relief polygonal salt crusts are characteristically limited to patches less than 100 m2 in area and, along their margins, they grade into other, more irregular crust morphologies. The polygonal ridges of the low-relief crusts form in a similar way to those of the high-relief crusts. The low-relief salt crusts, however, are composed of eforescent salt that crystallizes on the surface from saline groundwater rather than by the precipitation of salts by the evaporation of standing brines. For polygons to form and retain a coherent pattern on thin crusts, the halite must be precipitated in a uniform manner, at a relatively constant rate and on a at surface.

Blister crusts (pustular, puffy or dome-like)

Some of the particularly thin, low-relief salt crusts include a higher proportion of underlying sediment and adhering aeolian dust. These crusts often exhibit an irregular network of puffy salt blisters (Fig. 4e). Blisters can be formed by two different processes, one purely physical, the other imitative of pre-existing morphology. Blisters or pustules can be produced by processes similar to those that form the polygonal networks of pressure ridges (i.e. crust expansion as a result of halite crystallization and thermal expansion and contraction). For blisters to form on part of a salt crust, the halite must be precipitated in an irregular manner and at different rates. This causes the salt crust surface to be characterized by a random network of rounded pressure ridges rather than the more organized polygonal pattern. The close proximity of the pressure ridges to each other interrupts growth. This causes the polygonal network to lose its integrity and become more pustular.

Imitative eforescent crusts

Low-relief, eforescent salt crusts seldom form on completely at sediment surfaces. In many instances, the surface is already covered by wind or subaqueous ripples, and occasionally by biogenic mats. The crystallization of eforescent salt

Polygonal crusts
The low-relief salt crusts may exhibit polygonal ridge patterns, but the polygons generally have

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T. M. Goodall et al. related to the desiccating action of the wind. The wind assists in the process by drawing out surface lms of brine from the crust, so forming small protuberances of eforescent halite. Brine is continually blown to the end of the hair-like projections, where it evaporates, precipitating halite and so lengthening the hairs.

partially preserves the pre-existing surface morphology by leaving a cast of its original form (Fig. 4f and g). Imitations of ripple structures are commonly deformed into more hump-like shapes with continued crystallization of the eforescent salt crust (also reported by Smoot & Lowenstein, 1991, p. 227). In some instances, pustular salt crusts in the Sabkhat Matti region mimic the surface morphology of thin, short-lived biogenic (algal or cyanobacterial) mats (see also Smoot & Castens-Seidell, 1994). In the UAE, biogenic mats are mainly present on intertidal ats, but they can also exist in inland desert areas for short periods (a few weeks) when interdune areas are ooded by rainwater. Anaerobic activity beneath the mat tends to produce bubbles of gas at the sediment mat contact, which causes the surface of the mat to deform into blisters. The mats in inland areas start to die once the rainwater ponds begin to evaporate and the water starts to become hypersaline. Before the biogenic mat decomposes, it can be encrusted with either settling halite crystals or eforescent halite. After the new salt crust dries out and is exposed, its surface features reect the original morphological characteristics of the pre-existing blistered biogenic mat. The crusts may be slightly modied later by lateral expansion associated with further halite crystallization.

Salt-crust wrinkles
Small-scale, salt-encrusted ridges or furrows (Fig. 5c), referred to as salt-crust wrinkles, are formed as a result of the modication of the surface morphology of pre-existing surface features. Fine, powdery halite may crystallize in the top few millimetres (<5 mm) of the surface sediment, which has the effect of destroying the original subsurface structures. At the surface, however, the halite cements the sediment only lightly, and its effect on the surface morphology is subtle. The addition of the halite delicately wrinkles the surface morphology of any pre-existing sedimentary features, such as wind ripples. This wrinkling effect is usually at a millimetre scale. Fryberger et al. (1984, g. 9) recorded features similar to salt-crust wrinkles in the Jafurah region of Saudi Arabia, which they describe as `irregular topography resulting from the cementation of the sands by evaporites'. Biogenic mats may produce small-scale surface features as well as inuence the macroscopic scale to produce the blister-type, low-relief crusts described above. Biogenic mats are composed of delicate laments, which bind the surface laminations and produce a certain amount of cohesion and elasticity. Anaerobic activity beneath the mat produces small bubbles of gas at the sediment mat contact. In ooded interdune areas, the action of wind-driven waves as the pools dried out has been seen to tear thin biogenic mats to pieces. Not only did the tears themselves produce microrelief, but the scraps of mat were crumpled and wrinkled by further agitation of the water. The micromorphology of the wrinkled mats was subsequently preserved by the deposition of negrained eforescent halite crystals. The crust morphology can, however, be completely modied by further halite crystallization and associated thermal expansion, so that its biogenic origins become hard to discern.

Micromorphology
The salt crusts observed possess a variety of micromorphological (<1 cm) forms (Fig. 5) that have the potential to be preserved in ancient successions.

`Popcorn' surfaces
On the inland salt ats of the Sabkhat Matti region, eforescent halite crystals commonly form nodular aggregates about 14 cm across (Fig. 5a). Eugster & Hardie (1978) aptly named these features `popcorn' surfaces. The origin of these popcorn-like growths is difcult to discern, and no explanation has been published.

Hairy, eforescent surface halite

The eforescent salt crusts of SE Arabia are typically nely crystalline and have a porous, almost powdery, texture. Some also have delicate, needle-like hairs of halite covering their surface (Fig. 5b). The hairs all lean in a downwind direction, which suggests that their formation is

Small-scale, erosional salt crust structures

Fryberger et al. (1984) noticed that the surfaces of the damp salt ats in the Al Jafurah region of

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Salt crust sedimentary structures Saudi Arabia commonly had irregular erosional topography. They believed that this was the result of differential erosion of evaporite-cemented sands. Two of the features that they document are also present in the inland salt ats of Sabkhat Matti. Some areas of inland salt ats in the Sabkhat Matti region are covered by small patches of streamlined, erosional features a centimetre or so in length and height, which are referred to here as microyardangs (Fig. 5d). Fryberger et al. (1984) suggested that these features are formed by the wind shaping the evaporite-cemented sand and silt into small, streamlined protrusions. Similar features have been observed in the present study forming on the surface of rain-dampened dune sand, where there is no inuence of evaporite cementation (Fig. 5d), suggesting that the salt crust features are also the product of aeolian deation differentially eroding sediment in subtly different stages of cementation. Similar structures have been described as `asymmetric adhesion warts' by Olsen et al. (1989). Our observations suggest that differential erosion rather than adhesion produces these structures. The dominant surface feature of some damp interdunes in SE Arabia are sets of ribs or ridges that are sinuous in plan form and 12 cm high (Fig. 5e). These are the surface expression of lightly cemented, truncated dune cross-bedding. Fryberger et al. (1984) recognized that similar features in the Al Jafurah region were produced by differential resistance to wind scour of the dune cross-bedding. Examples in Sabkhat Matti show fabric-selective cementation of the different lamination types within the dune cross-bed sets. The ner grained, wind-ripple laminae are better cemented and resist the scouring action of the wind. They form ridges or ribs, while the wind removes the more poorly cemented sand of the intervening coarser grained, grainow laminae. SEDIMENTARY FABRICS PRODUCED BY SALT CRUSTS Salt crusts are widespread surface features on both supratidal and inland salt ats, but are rarely preserved intact. Even when such crusts become buried by sediment, the groundwaters are usually undersaturated, especially with respect to halite, and dissolve the evaporites within the crusts. Saturated and oversaturated groundwaters are likely to be present only towards the centre of basins with a closed groundwater system.

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Although not preserved themselves, salt crusts interact during formation and burial with the surface and subsurface sediments to produce a wide range of distinctive sedimentary features. Correct identication of the salt crust genesis of observed sedimentary structures can provide signicant evidence to aid environmental interpretation. An important point to bear in mind, however, is that there is not always a simple oneto-one correspondence between a particular crust morphology and the resultant fabric. Many structures are the product of multiple phases of salt crust growth. The crusts may be of different types in each phase, and so partially obliterate any diagnostic features. It is crucial, therefore, to have knowledge of the possible primary types of crust as, armed with this information, it is still possible to recognize the inuence of individual formative processes even in compound, multiphase crusts. Hardie et al. (1978) and Kendall (1984) stressed that the evaporite minerals in the surface crust should not be taken as an indication of the type of evaporite minerals that will be preserved in the underlying sediments. So, care is required when using studies of modern environments to aid identication of the sedimentary fabrics produced by salt crusts. It is possible that the region is in net degradation, and the observed crust is sitting on structures produced by earlier depositional and salt growth processes.

Salt growth sediment deformation

Where eforescent salt crusts form on areas of sandy sediment, especially areas of highly permeable wind-blown sand, the top few millimetres of the sediment become incorporated into the crust. This process destroys any pre-existing lamination within the sediment. In contrast, thicker salt crusts formed on less permeable sediments tend to deform the original laminae rather than destroy them, so that the laminae become increasingly concave upwards, reecting the continued growth of polygonal depressions at the surface. Salt crusts growing on surfaces already occupied by ripples and biogenic mats initially reect the original morphologies of the pre-existing features. With further halite crystallization and associated thermal expansion and contraction, the original ripple laminae are deformed, so that they form convex lenses of sediment whose internal laminae are oversteepened and sometimes exhibit small-scale faulting. The growth of crusts causes horizontal laminae, such as those

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Fig. 7. An extensive area of bowl-shaped depressions on the surface of an area of inland salt ats, Sabkhat Matti, produced by the dissolution of subsurface evaporites after heavy rain. Scale: the hole at lower right (black) is about 50 cm across.

Fig. 8. Dissolution of salt nodules that had grown displacively within aeolian cross-bedded sands leaves irregular, lenticular patches of silt and sand (arrowed). Trench section, Sabkha Matti. Scale: short black bars at lower right are each 1 cm.

beneath biogenic mats, to buckle so that they become convex upward.

Salt-solution sediment collapse

Solution collapse features occur when earlier surface salt crusts, or evaporite accumulations beneath the surface, are dissolved. This may result from ooding or heavy rain. The rapid removal of a surface crust leads to the deformation of any sediment incorporated within it. Sediments above a dissolving subsurface crust are likely to collapse into broad hollows. Smoot & Castens-Seidell (1994) noticed that the dissolution of surface crusts by ood waters tended to produce a compact clay layer with numerous microfaults and fractures lled with ood sediments. Solution collapse features are more pronounced in areas that either do not have crusts or have thin crusts. There is a higher likelihood of dissolution being reected at the surface where prior crusts are most incompetent. After winter rains, solution collapse features are widespread on the surface of the salt ats in Sabkhat Matti. They are present in two main forms: rst, as small (<1 m diameter), bowl-shaped depressions (Fig. 7); and secondly, as larger (14 m diameter), more irregular hollows, which have microfaulted and brecciated margins. Both are produced by the dissolution of evaporites from the near-surface sediment. The larger solution hollows tend initially to be lled with water. The water dissolves

the surface and subsurface evaporites, and the hollows develop steep sides. Once the water has drained away or evaporated, these solution hollows can be up to 50 cm deep and 4 m in diameter. Solution collapse hollows are notably prevalent in the area around a natural spring in Sabkhat Matti. Such a spatial association between solution features and springs has also been seen in Saline Valley, USA, and it is therefore tempting to suggest a causative link between the hollows and the artesian upwelling. But solution hollows are uncommon in Umm as Samim, even though it is clear that artesian upwelling is the dominant water supply process in this region. Solution collapse features may also form by the dissolution of salt nodules that had grown within sediment, salts referred to as `soil evaporites' by Smoot & Lowenstein (1991). The precipitation of displacive, nodular salts probably occurs at times when the level of the capillary fringe remains static for an extended period. Halite nodules are subsequently dissolved by either rising groundwater or inltrating rainwater. This leaves lenticular dissolution patches, about 1020 cm long and 25 cm wide, of disrupted sediments (Fig. 8).

Sediment aggradation
The surfaces of salt crusts are hygroscopic and usually have surface relief such as pressure ridges or blisters. These two attributes combine to make

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Salt crust sedimentary structures the salt crusts quite efcient sediment traps. The hygroscopic nature of halite causes wind-blown silt and dust to adhere to the surface of the salt crust. When the crust dissolves, it leaves behind a residue of poorly sorted, silty mud. Low-relief, thin crusts with a blister morphology (Fig. 4e) trap wind-blown or water-deposited sediment in two different ways. Sediment collects on top of the crust in hollows and can also be trapped beneath the crust. This occurs because the crests of salt ridges and blisters are thin and brittle, and often collapse, providing a sheltered location for deposition of sediment. In areas where the level of the water table is rising (perhaps after rain elsewhere), the surfaces of these sand and silt lags are then quickly encrusted with new eforescent salt. With continued crystallization of salt, the new patches of crust eventually develop pressure ridges and/or blisters, and the cycle is repeated (Fryberger et al., 1984). After burial, these deposits are preserved as sandy lenses surrounded by a muddy matrix of hygroscopically trapped silt- and clay-size grains left behind as the salt crusts progressively dissolve. The result is an irregular wavy lamination, which is illustrated clearly in the trench sections shown by Fryberger et al. (1983) in their g. 26C and D. The same process is responsible for the formation of irregular, `oating' patches of sand in a poorly sorted mud, which has been described as `sand-patch fabric' by Smoot & Castens-Seidell (1994).

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Fig. 9. Subcircular patches of damp sand interspersed with evaporites (`leopard spots' of Glennie, 1991). This is the characteristic surface of large areas of the inland salt ats in Sabkha Matti.

Compound salt crust fabrics

Few of the sedimentary features present in inland salt at successions are the product of a single process. In most cases, they are compound features, resulting from a combination of aggradation, surface deformation and solution collapse. Such multiprocess derivation is demonstrated by one particular surface feature, common in Sabkhat Matti, which consists of subcircular patches of sand (typically 1060 cm in diameter) separated from each other by a muddy, evaporitic matrix (Fig. 9). These features were nicknamed `leopard spots' by Glennie (1991) because the dark sand patches separated by lighter coloured saltier areas resemble the spotted coat of a leopard. It is believed that these features are initially produced by aggradation, when wind-blown silt and sand collect in wide depressions (either salt growth polygons or solution hollows) on the

surface of a former salt crust (e.g. Fig. 7). During their later development, these features are modied by surface deformation, solution collapse and solution loading. The internal laminae within the sand patches are turned upwards at the edges, which suggests that the underlying salt continues to dissolve after deposition of the sand (Fig. 10). The internal laminae of the sand patches are also separated into discrete packages by truncation surfaces, suggesting a phased or cyclic development. The truncation surfaces are interpreted as being the result of seasonal subsurface solution (solution loading).

Fig. 10. Trench cut into an area of subcircular sand patches (Fig. 9) revealing that the sand forms lobate projections into the underlying muds and evaporites. Scale bar at lower right with 1-cm divisions.

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Salt crusts and adhesion structures

Some workers interpret all wavy lamination in terrestrial sands as the product of adhesion ripples. Recent work on core material from the Permian Rotliegend Group beneath the southern North Sea (Goodall, 1995) has shown that major parts of the succession studied were not dominated by aeolian adhesion processes but were produced by salt crusts, a difference that has profound implications for the prediction in the subsurface of porosity and permeability. It can be seen, with hindsight, that this situation may have come about because earlier publications by Glennie (1970, 1972) referred repeatedly to adhesion ripples and largely overlooked the possibility of wavy laminations related to salt crusts. These works inuenced the interpretations of subsequent workers, and inappropriate identication of adhesion ripples has continued, despite the later appearance in the literature of examples of salt-related wavy laminations (McKee, 1982; Fryberger et al., 1983, 1984). One of the earliest descriptions of salt-related wavy laminations is that of Nagtegaal (1973), from the Namib Desert, but this has generally gone unnoticed because this feature was, confusingly, termed adhesion ripple lamination. To set the record straight, it should be emphasized that salt crusts are at least as important as adhesion ripples in producing wavy lamination in sediment. To assist in clarifying the situation, the following observations from our experiences in SE Arabia are offered.

Fig. 11. Close-up of trench wall cut into adhesion pseudocross-lamination. The set of arrowed crosslaminae are concave up, indicating that the rate of vertical aggradation adhesion steadily increased, perhaps in response to a progressive increase in moisture content of the depositional surface. Above the arrowed laminae are small dome-shaped adhesion wart structures that are accreting almost vertically. Scale: short black bars at lower right are each 2 cm.

Adhesion ripples (or climbing adhesion ripple structures)

Typical adhesion ripples producing pseudocrosslamination (Hunter, 1973; Kocurek & Fielder, 1982) are rarely found on the inland salt ats of SE Arabia. For adhesion ripples to form, the surface must be free of encrusting evaporites, so that the sand and silt can adhere naturally to a relatively smooth surface. The surface has to be kept damp by a relatively slow and constant capillary rise in moisture, so that the adhesion ripple process is maintained. Although the surfaces of the salt crusts are damp and encourage adhesion, the growth of evaporites disrupts both the surface morphology and the internal structure of the delicate `pseudo'-ripple bedforms. The recognition in the rock record of large amounts of adhesion-rippled sandstone, such as that seen in the Upper Cambrian Galesville Sandstone in

south-central Wisconsin, USA (Kocurek & Fielder, 1982), therefore attests to a fairly restricted set of environmental conditions and precludes a salt at setting. However, conditions may be locally suitable for adhesion ripple development on salt ats, as adhesion pseudocross-lamination was developed on a small area of inland salt at in Sabkhat Matti (Fig. 11). The pseudocross-laminae themselves may subtly record different rates of capillary rise. Hunter (1973) recognized that, in some instances, naturally formed adhesion pseudocross-laminae were curved, convex up. He believed that this occurred in response to declining rates of ripple climb as the depositional surface becomes progressively drier and the rate of adhesion is reduced, an interpretation conrmed experimentally by Kocurek & Fielder (1982). In Sabkhat Matti, many of the adhesion pseudocross-laminae are, however, concave up not convex up (Fig. 11), which is interpreted here to reect a trend of increasing rather than decreasing moisture availability.

Quasi-planar adhesion lamination (or adhesion plane bed lamination)

Flat lamination produced by adhesion (termed `quasi-planar adhesion lamination' by Hunter, 1980; or `adhesion laminations' by Kocurek & Fielder, 1982) is not widespread on the inland

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Salt crust sedimentary structures salt ats of SE Arabia. For quasi-planar adhesion laminae to form, the surface must be free of encrusting evaporites, so that the sand and silt can adhere to a relatively smooth surface. Quasiplanar adhesion laminae are likely to develop in areas where the capillary rise of moisture is too slow for the formation of adhesion ripples (Hunter, 1980), or where grains are falling vertically (e.g. grainfall in the lee of a dune) onto the surface (Kocurek & Fielder, 1982), and the sand and silt sticks to the damp surface in a more uniform manner. Although the laminae are planar, they can be distinguished from plane bed subcritically climbing translatent wind ripple stratication (Hunter, 1977) because quasi-planar adhesion laminae are ner and more irregular.

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Adhesion wart structures (vertically climbing adhesion ripples)

A structure resembling the adhesion warts described by Reineck (1955) is present on the inland salt ats of SE Arabia as small domes or oval bumps about 1 cm in size. According to Reineck (1955), these features form in areas where sand and silt is sticking to a damp, evaporite-free surface during strong, frequently shifting winds. The variable orientation of the wind was believed to encourage vertical rather than lateral accretion of sediment. The irregular morphology of the surface was thought to cause the vertical sediment accretion to produce in-phase, open-arched laminae (Fig. 12). Kocurek & Fielder (1982) were not able to replicate such features experimentally

under the conditions described by Reineck (1955), although they did produce a similar looking feature by vertical grainfall onto a damp irregular surface. In Sabkhat Matti, there are some cases in which structures resembling these `adhesion warts' can clearly be seen developing from steeply inclined adhesion pseudocross-laminae. If the rate of capillary rise increases particularly rapidly, then steeply inclined adhesion pseudocross-laminae will reach a state where they are accreting almost vertically. When this happens, the `pseudo'crosslamination is lost and replaced by in-phase, nearhorizontal lamination characterized by regularly spaced small domes, which were previously the adhesion ripple crestlines (Fig. 11). This transition demonstrates an increase in sediment surface wetness. The features observed in this study are vertically climbing adhesion ripples, and it is recommended that the term `adhesion wart' be dropped in future.

Evaporitic adhesion structures

Evaporitic adhesion (the term used by Kocurek & Fielder, 1982) is clearly a widespread surface feature on the inland salt ats of SE Arabia. It occurs when sand and silt sticks to the surfaces of salt crusts. Small changes in the hygroscopic abilities of the crust cause the sediment to stick in an uneven manner. Although evaporitic adhesion is a widespread feature at the surface, the internal structures have a low preservation potential, because subsequent salt crust deformation and associated dissolution act to destroy the original morphologies. Kocurek & Fielder (1982) explained the origin of evaporitic adhesion structures by the following sequence of events. Sand and silt are blown onto the crusts during the daytime, while the crusts are dry. During the night and the following morning, the humidity in desert areas typically increases and moistens parts of the crust. Sand and silt are trapped hygroscopically at this time and incorporated into the damp portions of the crust. The wind may shape parts of the lightly evaporitecemented sediment into streamlined elongate ridges (microyardangs; Fig. 5d). The successive sediment accretion, coupled with its uneven erosion, produces irregular, wavy laminae. These are the `adhesion ripples' of Nagtegaal (1973, g. 2a). It is considered by the present authors to be unlikely that this set of processes could result in any signicant thickness of wavy-laminated

Fig. 12. Trench section showing adhesion wart structures (arrowed, centre), which leave stacked in-phase, open-arch laminae. Above and below are incipient adhesion pseudocross-lamination structures. Scale: short black bars at top are each 2 cm.

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T. M. Goodall et al. The setting of the East Irish Sea Basin during the Early Triassic was initially thought to have been dominated by uvial deposition that took place under semi-arid climatic conditions (Colter & Barr, 1975; Bushell, 1986). The wavy-laminated facies was previously interpreted as the product of uvial sheetoods modied by soft-sediment deformation and bioturbation (Colter & Ebbern, 1978). But close study of the wavy-laminated units in core from wells in the Morecambe Gas Field has revealed many features that match salt crust fabrics observed in the modern salt ats of SE Arabia. As a result, these units are reinterpreted as salt at deposits, which, in turn, has enabled the recognition of eldwide, correlatable, drying-upward depositional patterns (Herries & Cowan, 1997). One of the most distinctive and abundant sedimentary fabrics shown by the wavy-laminated lithofacies consists of sand lenses up to about 4 cm thick separated by millimetre-scale silty laminae or drapes (Fig. 13a). Although the majority of the sand-rich laminae extend across the entire width of the core, they occasionally pinch out. These sand lenses are interpreted as sediment aggradation fabrics characteristic of low-relief, thin salt crusts. Wind-blown sand has been incorporated into the spaces beneath the brokentopped ridges of polygonal morphology crusts (Fig. 4d) or into broken domes of halite of blister crusts (Fig. 4e). Thinner sand layers and lenses are produced by wind-blown sand accumulating within surface irregularities on top of the lowrelief, thin crusts, such as on the leeside of ridges.

sediment. Instead, it is suggested that wavy lamination is the result of sediment accumulation in areas of thin, low-relief salt crusts that have blister morphology (the salt ridges of Fryberger et al., 1983), as described earlier. This is also a view now being adopted by G. Kocurek. ANCIENT SALT FLAT SUCCESSIONS To illustrate the value of a detailed understanding of modern salt at environments when studying the rock record, one example will be reviewed briey in which the recognition of salt crust features led to a signicant revision of the interpretation of the depositional environment. This revised interpretation was possible even though the only material available was a 10-cmdiameter borehole core. The Triassic Ormskirk Sandstone Formation in the East Irish Sea Basin is the uppermost formation of the Sherwood Sandstone Group (Jackson et al., 1987). Between one-third and one-half of the formation consists of at-lying beds with an irregular, wavy sedimentary fabric (Meadows & Beach, 1993). These lithofacies are interbedded with thin aeolian units and thicker uvial channel sandstones (Cowan, 1993; Herries & Cowan, 1997). Sections of this wavy fabric lithofacies up to 50 m thick are separated by variable thicknesses of aeolian sandstone with millimetre-to-decimetre-thick layering that displays clear aeolian grain textures and lamination types.

Fig. 13. Wavy-laminated lithofacies of the Ormskirk Sandstone Formation in core from the Morecambe Field (arrows show the way up). (a) Typical appearance of silty laminations and sand lenses aggraded in areas of low-relief, thin salt crusts. Scale divisions at upper left are in centimetres. (b) Large sand lens formed by sand blown into a hollow salt blister, with subsequent lamination lapping onto it, showing that the lens is preserving the original morphology. Black square at upper left is 1 cm. (c) Large sand lens with internal dipping laminae. Scale divisions at upper left are centimetres.
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Fig. 14. Crinkly silt laminae produced by imitative eforescent crusts in the wavy-laminated lithofacies of the Ormskirk Sandstone Formation, in core from the Morecambe Field. Scale divisions are in centimetres. (a) Typical appearance, with biogenic mat wrinkles arrowed. (b) Sharp-crested silt layers (arrowed) diagnostic of biogenic mat wrinkles modied by salt growth. (c) Crinkly laminae within an overall more argillaceous part of the formation.

The wavy silt layers are dust that initially adhered to the salt crust surface as evaporitic adhesion structures. The dust has been concentrated into ne-grained envelopes or drapes that fully or partially enclose the sand lenses following the post-burial dissolution of the salt crusts. The sand lenses formed by inlling of the hollows beneath blister salt crust surfaces usually have near-horizontal lamination lapping onto their sides (Fig. 13b), which indicates that the original surface relief imparted by salt blisters or ridges is being preserved. The presence of convex-upwards laminae in some of the sand patches suggests that the sand was blown into the blisters and accumulated by grainfall in the shelter of the blister. Some of the internal laminae have unidirectional dips, which suggests that the sand entered from one side of the feature rather than through the top (Fig. 13c). Dome-like blisters on the surfaces of modern salt crusts in SE Arabia may have openings on their tops but, more commonly, they have openings on their sides, as a result of selective abrasion by saltating sand grains of the upwind side of the blisters. The wind subsequently blows sand through these openings into the space beneath the blister. These salt crust sediment aggradation fabrics often comprise successions stacked at the centimetre-to-decimetre scale. The repetition of lenticular sandy laminae with silty drapes may be the reection of wetter and drier seasonal variations. The sand-rich laminae accumulated by aeolian deposition during drier conditions and the silty drapes reect the intermittent formation of salt crusts during wetter periods (either by subtle water table rise or by the recrystallization

of halite after rainfall). Fryberger et al. (1983, gs 26 and 28) have also documented the presence of similar, stacked salt crust fabrics in both ancient and modern salt at sediments. Other sections of the wavy-laminated lithofacies show crinkly silty laminae that are interpreted as imitative eforescent crusts, in this case reecting the micromorphology of biogenic mats (Fig. 14a). Thin biogenic mats are common in ephemeral pools. After these pools dry out and the mats decompose, the surface is usually encrusted with eforescent halite, which preserves the original morphology of the mat. The resulting salt crust morphology may be subjected to further deformation by lateral compression as halite continues to crystallize. The intimate association between biogenic mats and salt crusts, coupled with the low preservation potential of both the organic and evaporitic material, means that it is sometimes impossible to say whether the crinkly silt laminae represent the mats or the crusts. A criterion that is useful for distinguishing between the two origins is the presence of smallscale wrinkles, especially sharp-crested features (Fig. 14b). Modern salt crusts in SE Arabia possess similar morphological features only when halite has crystallized on the surface of a preexisting biogenic mat. Crinkly silt layers occur most commonly within units of the Ormskirk Sandstone that are relatively argillaceous (Fig. 14c). The association of these laminae with muddier intervals is signicant because it supports interpretation as products of both biogenic mat and salt crust growth. The presence of biogenic mat structures indicate that these crinkly laminated units were

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T. M. Goodall et al. reviews by Gary Kocurek and Joseph Smoot, and the authors thank them for their contributions.

deposited on low-lying salt ats that were occasionally ooded. SUMMARY The morphology and fabrics of salt crusts are described from three large areas of salt ats in SE Arabia in order to assist with interpreting ancient successions that may have been inuenced by salt growth. Salt crusts form either as eforescent crusts that accumulate by evaporation of groundwater discharge or as crusts precipitated by the evaporation to dryness of ephemeral ponds of storm-driven marine brines or rainwater. The crusts can be grouped into thick crusts with high surface relief (>10 cm) and thin crusts with low surface relief (<10 cm). At the microscale, there are four signicant styles of surface texture. The thick crusts develop mostly in regions subject to prolonged discharge of groundwater that are rarely ooded at the surface, such as the central parts of Umm as Samim in Oman. Thin crusts characterize regions that are frequently, if briey, inundated, such as the inland parts of Sabkhat Matti in the UAE. Although the salt crusts themselves are rarely preserved, their formation and development leaves a distinct record in the sedimentary fabrics. Salt growth sediment deformation, salt solution sediment collapse, sediment aggradation and combinations of any or all of these produce features that, with care, allow recognition of an ancient sedimentary succession as one that developed as a salt at. This is illustrated by examples from the Lower Triassic Ormskirk Sandstone Formation of the East Irish Sea Basin. Wavy lamination may be produced by adhesion ripples, but may equally result from sediment trapping on thin salt crusts. The frequency of occurrence of adhesion ripples has been overstated in the past. It must always be remembered that the sedimentary structures observed in the rock record may have had a multiphase development. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The work of T.M.G. was supported nancially by Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij BV. The authors are most grateful to the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) for logistical support for eldwork in the United Arab Emirates. This paper has been greatly improved through the thoughtful and diligent

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