Ido Sirota

Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam - Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum GFZ | GFZ

Establishing accurate palaeo‐hydroclimatic reconstructions from lacustrine and marine archives is a long‐standing challenge in palaeoenvironment studies. Closed‐basin evaporites, and especially halite, record episodes of extremely arid conditions during rapid climate change. However, the complex limnological behaviour of deep hypersaline water bodi...

The industrial extraction of Y and lanthanides (hereafter defined as Rare Earth Elements, REE) often requires the achievement of leaching procedures removing these metals from primary rocks and their transfer in aqueous leachates or incorporated in newly forming soluble solids. These procedures are the most dangerous to the environment in relation...

The Dead Sea is a unique deep hypersaline lake that actively deposits halite (salt) layers. It is located along a tectonic plate boundary, namely the Dead Sea Rift, at the lowest place on Earth. The lake’s level continuously declines at a rate higher than one meter per year, due to upstream water capture and local industrial activity. As a result,...

Sedimentological studies of modern halites have focused on shallow water to subaerially- exposed saline pans, where in-place crystal growth, dissolution, and cementation textures dominate. Clastic halite transported and deposited by waves and unidirectional currents as bedload is poorly known. This paper (1) describes and interprets the diagnostic...

As the only deep hypersaline, halite-precipitating lake on Earth today, the Dead Sea is the single modern analog for investigating the mechanisms by which large-scale and thick salt deposits, known as ‘salt giants’ have accreted in the geological record. We directly measure the hydroclimatic forcing and the physical limnologic processes leading to...

Many halite sequences in the geological record accumulated in deep hypersaline basins. However, modern analogs of active halite deposition were studied in shallow hypersaline environments and then applied in interpreting halite sequences. Recently, halite deposition in the deep, hypersaline Dead Sea has been studied together with its coeval environ...

Quantitative multi-element analyses of single fluid inclusions in halite and other sedimentary minerals can provide information on the origin and chemical evolution of ancient surface waters on Earth. Integrated laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) and cryogenic-scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spect...

Halite is an important mineral for industry, agriculture and food production. It crystallises after water evaporation, while the progressive growth of dissolved metal ion in brines is occurring. Then, halite exploitation may provide metal ions in the environment and the mechanism of this trace element accumulation should be studied. In this work we...

The development of giant salt basins and eventual cessation of rapid salt deposition is founded on a delicate balance of salinity and heat fluxes within the water body governed by tectonic, climatic and eustatic change. The onset of salt deposition in such basins is widely accepted to be initiated by basin restriction. However, the processes that l...

Layered halite sequences were deposited in deep hypersaline basins throughout the geological record. However, analogues of such sequences are commonly studied in shallow environments. Here we study active precipitation of halite layers from the only modern analog for deep, halite-precipitating basin, the hypersaline Dead Sea. The link between spati...

Seasonal limnologic and environmental controls over the modern accumulation of halite layers in the deep hypersaline Dead Sea and their relations with the thermohaline stratification were determined by direct, in situ observations and measurements. These observations established the spatiotemporal dynamics of halite deposition pointing to a new par...

Worldwide stratigraphic records present thick halite layers accreted in deep hypersaline basins under dry climate conditions. The thickness and distribution of these halite units are used in basin analyses and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Recent studies have raised doubts regarding the assumption that a given halite layer's thickness is dire...

Layered halite sequences are found in deep basins throughout the geological record. However, analogs for such sequences are commonly studied in shallow environments. Here, we studied active precipitation of halite layers from the only modern analog for deep, halite-precipitating basins, the hypersaline Dead Sea. In situ observations in the Dead Sea...

Hypersaline lakes and seas were common in the past, precipitating thick evaporitic salt deposits. The only modern analogue for the paleo-limnology of deep salt-saturated aquatic environments exists in the Dead Sea. In this study we present new insights from the Dead Sea on the role of seasonal thermohaline stratification and water balance on the se...