HOW IT ALL BEGAN

To trace the origin of salt we must go back to the origin of the earth itself.

Geological evidence shows that the earth existed over four billion years ago. Most geologists believe that the earth was first a swirling mass of hot, fluid, gases thrown off by the sun or another exploding star. These gases slowly cooled and the materials in the cooling fluid became stratified according to their densities with the result that the metals moved toward the center and a silicate crust formed with the light chlorides and sulphates resting on the surface. The earth didn't cool evenly and cracks, bulges and hollows began to appear, frequently the molten interior poured through the cracks causing more shifting of the earth's crust and accenting the bulges and hollows. These events led to the rock masses and basins that are our continents and oceans. We know, from earthquakes and volcanoes, that the process is still going on today.

As the earth continued to cool, gases and water were given off to form our atmosphere. The water hung above the earth as clouds until further cooling condensed the clouds to water, which then came down as rain. The rain continued for thousands of years and, falling all over the earth, flowed from the high places to the low, filling the basins, which became oceans. As the rains fell on the earth the light, salty, materials on the crust were dissolved and carried with the water into the oceans. Thus the oceans have been salty since they began and have been the source of many of our vast sedimentary mineral deposits.

The oceans have many times swept into hollows on the continents and either receded, or were cut off, creating large pools of salty water. The water in the pools evaporated leaving beds of salt behind. Each repetition of this cycle, invasion by the ocean, recession, evaporation, deposited layer upon layer until some of the beds attained very great thickness.

Erosion of mountain peaks and other high places then caused the salty deposits to be covered with a mantle of sedimentary rocks. This mantle protected the salts from being re-dissolved but it also hid them from us so that, when we need them, we must explore for them by drilling holes through the mantle. We are guided in our search by geological knowledge and aided by modern, sophisticated, exploration tools and equipment.