The irregular dark patches are the salt glaciers. Satellite image of the Zagros Mountains.Salt domes (hills) and salt glaciers (dark areas) in the Zagros Mountains of southern IranISS image of an oval-shaped salt glacier, about 14 km (8 mi) across, in the Zagros Mountains. Note north arrow pointing towards lower right.Konar Siyah Salt dome, Hadi Karimi, Iran
A salt glacier (or namakier)[1] is a rare flow of salt that is created when a rising diapir in a salt dome breaches the surface of Earth.[2][3] The name ‘salt glacier’ was given to this phenomenon due to the similarity of movement when compared with ice glaciers. The causes of these formations is primarily due to salt's unique properties and its surrounding geologic environment. A rising body of salt is referred to as a diapir; which rises to the surface and feeds the salt glacier. Salt structures are usually composed of halite, anhydrite, gypsum and clay minerals. Clays may be brought up with the salt, turning it dark. These salt flows are rare on Earth. In a more recent discovery, scientists have found that they also occur on Mars,[3] but are composed of sulfates. A paper published in November 2023 suggests that salt glaciers composed of halite might also be present on Mercury.[4]
The salt glaciers of the Zagros Mountains in Iran[5][6] are halite whereas the salt glacier of Lüneburg Kalkberg, Germany is composed of gypsum and carbonate minerals.
Ancient flows have been preserved in various rock records by sedimentation. Late Triassic salt glaciers repeatedly flowed onto a basin in Germany and were buried with sediment to create a series of preserved glaciers. Miocene glaciers flowed into sheets in the northern Gulf of Mexico and were similarly preserved by overriding sediment.[7][8]
^Littke, R; Bayer, U.; Gajewski, D.; Nelskamp, S. (editors) (2008). Dynamics of Complex Intracontinental Basins: The Central European Basin System. Berlin: Springer. p. 303. ISBN 978-3-540-85084-7. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Fossen, Haakon (2011). Structural Geology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
^ abBierman, Montgomery, Paul, David. Key Concepts in Geomorphology. New York.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Rodriguez, J. Alexis P.; Domingue, Deborah; Travis, Bryan; Kargel, Jeffrey S.; Abramov, Oleg; Zarroca, Mario; Banks, Maria E.; Weirich, John; Lopez, Anthony; Castle, Nicholas; Jianguo, Yan; Chuang, Frank (2023-11-01). "Mercury's Hidden Past: Revealing a Volatile-dominated Layer through Glacier-like Features and Chaotic Terrains". The Planetary Science Journal. 4 (11): 219. doi:10.3847/PSJ/acf219. ISSN 2632-3338.
^"Iran's Salt Glaciers". NASA Earth Observatory. Archived from the original on 2004-02-16. Retrieved 2006-04-27.
^Talbot, C.J.; Rogers, E.A. (1980). "Seasonal movements in a salt glacier in Iran". Science. 208 (4442): 395–397. Bibcode:1980Sci...208..395T. doi:10.1126/science.208.4442.395. PMID 17843617. S2CID 19831047.
^Raymond C. Fletcher, Michael R. Hudec; Watson, Ian A. (1995). "Salt Glacier and Composite Sediment-Salt Glacier Models for the Emplacement and Early Burial of Allochthonous Salt Sheets". Salt Tectonics: 77–107.
saltglacier (or namakier) is a rare flow of salt that is created when a rising diapir in a salt dome breaches the surface of Earth. The name ‘salt glacier’...
refilled, triggered the formation of salt domes. Plasticity (physics) Saltglacier Underground hydrogen storage Gorleben salt dome Schreiber, B.C. and Hsü, K...
viscosity of rock salt is reduced. Consequently, the flow rate of saltglaciers is much faster than that of salt tongue spreading and salt diapir rise. In...
ductile with a small amount of moisture, forming a saltglacier. Differential loading causes salt deposits covered by overburden (sediment) to rise upward...
Glacier Park International Airport (IATA: FCA, ICAO: KGPI, FAA LID: GPI) is in Flathead County, Montana, United States, six miles northeast of Kalispell...
other ingredients such as water, salt, sawdust, wheat husks and charcoal are also placed at the site. The use of glacier grafting is an old skill of the...
the sea, tends to spread laterally away and such salt is said to be "allochthonous". Saltglaciers are formed on land where this happens in an arid environment...
Netherlands, Denmark, Romania and Iran also have salt domes. Saltglaciers exist in arid Iran where the salt has broken through the surface at high elevation...
Mendenhall Glacier (in Tlingit language “Sít”) is a glacier about 13.6 miles (21.9 km) long located in Mendenhall Valley, about 12 miles (19 km) from downtown...
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is an American national park located in Southeast Alaska west of Juneau. President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the...
Timpanogos Glacier is a rock glacier located on Mount Timpanogos in the Wasatch Range within the Mount Timpanogos Wilderness (in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache...
important area for oil production. Salt domes and saltglaciers are a common feature of the Zagros Mountains. Salt domes are an important target for petroleum...
Hockey Club is a professional ice hockey expansion team that will be based in Salt Lake City. The team will compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a...
littoral drift. [citation needed] Fjords were formed where Pleistocene glaciers deepened and widened existing river valleys so that they become U-shaped...
the most recent glaciated period, both fjords were filled with active glaciers. The most common access is by boat using Stephens Passage and entering...
terrain Glacier – Persistent body of ice that is moving downhill under its own weight Glacier cave – Cave formed within the ice of a glacierGlacier foreland –...
have no woods, just dwarf scrub. The largest glaciers, for example the Plomo Glacier and the Horcones Glaciers, do not even reach 10 km (6.2 mi) in length...
disappeared by 1963 when the glaciers terminated as much as 100 yards inland. Baudissin Glacier on the north coast, and Vahsel Glacier on the west coast have...
) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounded landmasses...
Salt Lake City International Airport (IATA: SLC, ICAO: KSLC, FAA LID: SLC) is a joint civil-military international airport located about 4 miles (6.4 km;...
an overlying glacier can also lead to exfoliation due to pressure release. This can be enhanced by other physical wearing mechanisms. Salt crystallization...
northeast and the Talung glacier in the southeast drain to the Teesta River; the Yalung glacier in the southwest and the Kangchen glacier in the northwest drain...
Glacier Bay Basin in southeastern Alaska, in the United States, encompasses the Glacier Bay and surrounding mountains and glaciers, which was first proclaimed...
iron oxide–tainted plume of saltwater, flowing from the tongue of Taylor Glacier onto the ice-covered surface of West Lake Bonney in the Taylor Valley of...
is a piece of freshwater ice more than 15 m long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water. Smaller chunks of...
facility exists within the falls or anywhere along Salt Creek. Salt Creek Falls was formed when glaciers receded during the last glacial period, and water...
extensive field observations have provided evidence that continental glaciers covered large parts of Europe, North America, and Siberia. Maps of glacial...
Palmer Glacier is an extinct glacier on the south slopes of Mount Hood in the U.S. state of Oregon. With glacial ice movement having stopped in the mid-1980s...
Global Information
