POTASH SALTS AND OTHER SALINES IN THE GEEAT BASIN REGION. 47 



Analyses of potash in natural brines from Death Valley, Cal. 

 [W. B. Hicks and R. K. Bailey, analysts.] 



Description of sample. 



Depth in feet 

 at which sam- 

 ple was taken. 



Total salts 

 (ignited resi- 

 due) expressed 



as percent- 

 age of original 

 solution. 



Potash (KjO) 



expressed as 



■ percentage of 



ignited residue. 



KCl expressed 



as percent- 

 age of original 

 solution; 



Ground water in the salt crust at the 



0.5 

 .5 



9.5 



6 

 24 

 29 

 52 

 32 

 38 

 70 



1 

 30 

 32 

 38 



28.19 

 27.47 

 27.48 

 27.87 

 28.64 

 28.96 

 28.66 

 28.33 

 29.16 

 29.96 

 27.78 

 27.91 

 28.77 

 28.73 



3.43 

 1.20 

 1.18 

 2.86 

 2.22 

 2.35 

 2.01 

 1.54 

 1.78 

 2.48 

 2.05 

 1.68 

 2.23 

 2.12 



1.53 



Water in open "pothole" 



.52 



Do 



.51 



U. S. Geol. Survey well No. 1 



1.27 



Do 



1.01 



Do 



1.09 



Do 



.91 



U. S. Geol. Survey well No. 2 



.69 



Do 



.82 



Do 



1.18 



U. S. Geol. Survey well No. 3. . . 



.90 



Do 



.74 



U. S. Geol. Survey well No. 4 



1.02 



Do 



.97 







Average 





28.42 



2.08 



.94 









Gale comments upon these results as follows: 



"No shore markings or other evidence of former deep submergence of Death Valley- 

 have yet been discovered. It appears that the deposits laid down in this valley have 

 been chiefly the results of temporary shallow submergences and alternate desicca- 

 tions. Thus the deposits that make up the floor of this valley are supposed to have 

 been built up layer by layer, the salts having crystallized from the water evaporated 

 from the temporary shallow lakes and having been occasionally buried in mixtures of 

 sand and silt, including more or less saline material swept in by occasional floods. 

 This is the process that is going on at the present day. 



"A vast amount of saline material is accumulated in the bottom of this valley, but 

 the mode of its deposition probably is not favorable to selective crystallization on a 

 large scale. Segregation of potash or any other portion of the soluble constituents 

 of the waters may have taken place to slight extent in the individual salt crust layers, 

 but under the conditions described any such differentiation is likely to have been 

 restricted to the individual layers as units, and therefore has occurred on a scale so 

 small as to be of doubtful practical imjjortance. It seems evident that unless a vast 

 body of saline material has been deposited at one time during a single period of des- 

 •iccation that there would be little chance for the various dissolved constituents to 

 become segregated one from another on a large scale. There is no record of the drying 

 up of a single large lake of saline waters in Death Valley. Although it is possible that 

 the shores of such a lake might have been completely buried, the assumption that this 

 may have happened must be purely a matter of speculation." 



The potassium content of the saline residues from the brines obtained from the 

 United States Geological Survey bores is lower than the average for the brines obtained 

 from the surface potholes, the figures being, respectively, 1.73 and 2.63 per cent. 

 There is practical agreement in the results since some concentration of the potassium 

 salts might well be looked for in the surface brines. 



While the results of the Survey's work in Death Valley are disappointing, they are of 

 considerable importance, as they give much information concerning deposits of this 

 character. The conditions at depths greater than 100 feet are unknown, but it is fair 

 to presume that they are not unlike those within the first 100 feet. Salines in vast 

 quantity have collected in Death Valley, but concentration of the most valuable 

 salines has not taken place on anything more than a very local scale. For the con- 

 centration of these salines extreme conditions of aridity must be looked upon as 

 unfavorable. A deep lake, existing for some considerable time and then quickly 

 drying up, appears to be the condition necessary for the concentration of the most 

 soluble salines. 



Marshes of the Second Type. 



Marshes of the second type have a special interest in that the presence of a former 

 lake indicates a much greater run-off, and consequently a greater amount of ealine 

 accumulations. The desiccation of such a lake would be more apt to produce work- 



