Mineral Halite: properties, formula, origin and application. Rock salt

Rock salt is the mineral form of table salt, also known as table salt. Sometimes she is called halite, especially when used in industry. This form of salt is available in most grocery stores, as well as in hardware stores, where it is sold in large bags specially designed to make it convenient to sprinkle salt on the ice that forms on the roads in winter. There are a number of other uses for rock salt, from making homemade ice cream to fighting trespassers.

The main difference between rock salt and table salt is the size. Rock salt comes in the form of large, massive crystals, unlike table salt, which has very small crystals. Like table salt, rock salt contains a variety of trace elements that affect how the salt behaves chemically. Due to the large size of the crystals, rock salt is not usually used for direct cooking as it takes a long time to dissolve.

This form of salt is extracted from deposits that form the lower layers of the soil.

Such deposits are usually remnants of continental seas that evaporated thousands or millions of years ago. Table salt, by contrast, comes almost exclusively from evaporation ponds, which produce salt from seawater. People have known about rock salt deposits for centuries, and when salt was still rare, wars sometimes broke out over the ownership of salt deposits, as salt is very important for many human activities.

Salt lowers the pour point of water Therefore, rock salt has long been used to sprinkle icy roads in winter to melt the ice. However, this use of road salt, as it is sometimes called, has been largely phased out in favor of other materials such as sand, due to concerns about the adverse effects of salt runoff on environment. Rock salt is also used in various industrial processes. People sometimes use it as a humane weapon to ward off unwanted animal or human visitors without harming them, although salt in the face, especially the eyes, can be potentially dangerous.

At home, salt is often used when making ice cream.

When salt is packed with ice in an ice cream maker, it lowers the freezing point, allowing the ice cream to cool more. Salt is also used to prepare pickles and marinades, and to create a salt crust for various products. If you plan to use rock salt for food, the cook should be sure to purchase edible rock salt, as some companies treat salt intended for road surfaces and other non-food uses with chemicals.

Halite (from the Greek ἅλς - salt) is a mineral from the class of halides, subclass of chlorides: sodium chloride. Synonyms: rock salt, salt. Chemical formula: NaCl.

Glass shine. Hardness 2. Specific gravity 2.1-2.2 g/cm3. Colorless, white, greyish, pink, red, brown, blue, indigo. It is not uncommon to observe different colors within the same sample. The line is white. Crystalline halite exhibits perfect cleavage in three directions along the faces of the cube. Solid granular, dense, leafy, fibrous, sintered (stalactites and other forms); also drusen, crystals and plaque. Cubic system. The crystals are grown and ingrown and are usually cubic in shape.

The crystal lattice of halite is ionic. The lattice nodes, which have a cubic shape, contain positive sodium ions and negative chlorine ions. This is due to the presence of perfect cleavage in crystalline halite in three directions along the faces of the cube.

Features . Halite is characterized by a non-metallic luster, medium hardness, salty taste, and perfect cleavage in three directions along the cube faces, observed in crystalline varieties. Rock salt is similar to sylvite. It differs in taste (Sylvin’s is bitter) and color (Sylvin’s is milky white).

Chemical properties . The taste is salty. Easily dissolves in water.

Halite. Photo. G. Zell Galit. Photo by Pyotr Sosonovsky Cubic crystal of rock salt. © Hans-Joachim Engelhardt Stone salt with green illumination in the Museum of Mineralogy Bonn

Origin of halite

The surface is mostly lagoonal and lacustrine chemical sediment. There are ancient and modern deposits. The ancient ones are represented by rock salt and are chemical sediments of ancient sea bays, lagoons and lakes, formed under conditions of intense evaporation (hot, dry climate). Rock salt occurs in the form of layers, stocks or domes among sedimentary rocks. Stratified deposits usually occupy large areas(tens and hundreds of kilometers) and have greater thickness (up to 100 m or more).

Modern halite deposits are represented by salt lakes, bays, lagoons, where the process of sedimentation and accumulation of salt continues to occur today. In addition, relatively small concentrations of salt are observed on the walls of volcanic craters, at the outlets of salt springs, in desert and steppe areas - on the soil surface (“efflorescences”).

Satellites. Silvin, carnallite, gypsum, anhydrite.

Applications of halite

Halite is a raw material for obtaining of hydrochloric acid and its salts (caustic and soda ash, chlorine gas, ammonia, etc.). Almost no industry can operate without salt. Salt is used in the manufacture of more than one and a half thousand different products. Salt is used in refrigeration as food product, for canning meat, salting fish; for salting soap and organic paints, for salting leather; in metallurgy – for chlorinating roasting; in ceramics – for glazing clay products, in medicine. Salt is used in the production of aluminum and bleach.

Halite also serves as an ore for the production of metallic sodium and chlorine, as well as all compounds of these elements. Metallic sodium is used to produce alloys, as a reducing agent in metallurgy, as catalysts in production organic compounds and in the electrical industry - for the manufacture of wires (sodium “cores” covered with a copper sheath) and discharge lamps. Sodium lamps are used for street lighting. They are twice as bright and almost three times as durable as mercury ones. Sodium lamps also increase the contrast of objects.

Sodium serves as a catalyst in the production of synthetic rubber. Sodium peroxide regenerates cabin air spaceship and in a submarine. Cloud of sodium vapor released from space rockets, allows you to determine the location of the rocket and clarify its flight path. It has been established that 1 mm3 of rock salt can store up to a billion pieces of information. This opens up the possibility of using grains of salt in computers. Sodium-sulfur battery Lead-oxygen battery equal weight. Sodium coolant is used in nuclear reactors. Concentrated solutions are good antiseptics.

Place of Birth

The world's largest lake in terms of reserves of table salt is Lake. Baskunchak; The lake is also famous. Elton (both are in Volgograd region).

The Sol-Iletsk rock salt deposit (Orenburg region), Usolye - near Irkutsk, in Yakutia, as well as the Slavyano-Artemovskoe and Prikarpatskoe deposits (Ukraine) have long been known. To reservoir deposits with large area Distributions include the Statfurt salt basin in Germany, the salt deposits of the states of Kansas and Oklahoma in the USA, and the Saskatchewan basin in Canada.

Halite is a stone practically unknown to jewelers and at the same time well known to every person. We eat it! And we are not the only ones who have an appetite for the natural mineral: wild animals travel considerable distances to enjoy licking halite (simply salt) outcrops. Surprisingly, halite is a stone whose properties determine the way of existence of all living organisms.

There is nothing mysterious in this state of affairs. Life on Earth originated at a time when the waters of the world's oceans were already salty...

Initially heavily mixed with saline solution, we now need to periodically restore the concentration of sodium chloride in the body.

Halite from a scientific point of view

According to chemists, halite is a simple mineral. A simple NaCl compound, without much variety of forms and types. Mechanical inclusions inherent in the mineral are more often found in the form of potassium, calcium and magnesium chlorides. However, sometimes crystals may contain metal atoms and a fine suspension of organic matter.

The color of crystalline halite is absent as a given - but only if there are no impurities in the salt monolith. Tiny air bubbles give cubic halite crystals a snow-white color. A suspension of petrified clay (aluminosilicates) causes the salt to turn grey. Ancient organic matter gives halite its black color and hydrogen sulfide smell.

This mineral is found in the Himalayas. In the absence of anything else, it is eaten there. With the development of tourism, the practice of adding salt to food, which smells like rotten eggs, reached Europe...

For the curious observer, the most interesting are solid solutions of metals in rock salt. Atomic sodium, penetrating into the crystal lattice of halite, gives it an orange tint. Iron, in small quantity falling into crystallizing halite, it turns the mineral yellow. Or red - if the metal concentration is high enough. Or even brown - with an excess of Fe ions.

The mineral turns blue - to violet - under the influence of hard radiation. High-energy radiation knocks ions out of an already formed crystal lattice. Light, refracted in defective areas of the array, comes out in a depleted range of the spectrum. We perceive this distortion of energy flow as blue light.

It is interesting that halite loses its shape when heated. A hot mineral becomes plastic! It can be bent like plasticine.

Why is halite mined?

First of all - as a power supply. Every person needs several kilograms of salt a year - no matter what the newfangled gurus of salt-free diets claim. The food needs of all mankind require about seven million tons of annual mineral extraction.

Another hundred million tons are consumed by industry. Sodium and chlorine are extracted from the mineral halite. The mineral is a raw material for the production of soda, hydrochloric acid, and strong alkalis. Interestingly, high-quality optics use halite monocrystalline films as additional layers on the lenses.

The Natural Beauty of Halite Crystals

The most beautiful druses of salt crystals are mined in Germany and Poland (although halite deposits are found in abundance in Eurasia, and have even been discovered in the depths of the Russian capital).

Most interior artistically expressive crystals are used to make interior decorations. Small druses, balls, cylinders and pyramids made of salt stone amaze with the variety of soft colors and natural forms of the mineral.

Jewelry with halite inserts – very rare. Few craftsmen dare to combine eternal gold with short-lived stone. Amateur artists, on the contrary, often create inexpensive crafts in which cut halite plays a central role.

Caring for halite jewelry is not easy. They are extremely afraid of dampness and, due to the natural softness of the material, are subject to abrasive wear. Products made from halite are washed with pure gasoline or alcohol. If necessary, they can be rinsed in a strong saline solution, and then polished with velvet cloth.

Salt treatment

Traditional medicine widely uses the mineral halite in the treatment of various diseases. Inhalation of a heated saline solution is indicated in the fight against infections of the oral cavity and upper respiratory tract. Hot rinses with salt relieve toothache and reduce the intensity of inflammatory processes in the pulp.

Dry salt heating is effective in the fight against purulent skin lesions, otitis, and radicular syndrome. Saturation of the air with salt ions (halite) brings enormous benefits in the treatment of bronchopulmonary diseases. But while large medical institutions can afford to equip salt chambers, salt lamps are usually used at home.

To make the lamp even more attractive, illiterate manufacturers often paint the halite used to make the lamp with synthetic dyes. At best, using such a product will not cause harm to health.

Salty magic is not to the taste of evil spirits

It has long been noticed: a handful of salt thrown onto the ground in a cross closes the passage evil spirits. Vintage and modern fairy tales All they do is help the good heroes with salt, and destroy the evil heroes with crushed halite.

And this despite the fact that the original magical properties halite are small. The mineral, simple in composition, widely distributed (including as an element of living organisms), of course, provides transcendental access to any biological objects. But good power gives him prayer.

Over the course of many dozens of centuries, millions of people treated halite (salt) with respect and piety, pinned their hopes on it, communicated with it - thereby forming the magical potential of the mineral.

When using halite in occult rituals, be prepared for the potency of the salt if you are trying to create good essence. And it’s better not to touch halite if your goal can be considered even the slightest bit evil. Multiplied by the power of salt, an evil wish ALWAYS turns against the uttered word of the spell...

Salt spells work great if a bag of crushed halite is used as a talisman. Salt from the father's house helps warriors heal wounds. The traveler will not forget his relatives, even if his wanderings last for decades, but he uses a handful of salt as a “reminder”. A pinch of salt sewn into a baby's clothes protects against the evil eye and damage.

The main thing is to keep the salt talisman a secret. Salt is very sensitive to people, and therefore, when exposed to public display, it can be “saturated” with other people’s fluids.

Kieserite Polyhalite Sulfur Native Silvin et al.

Halite - a widespread mineral of the halogen class. Synonyms: mountain salt, rock salt, table salt, cracking salt.

Chemical composition

Sodium (Na) 39.4%, chlorine (C1) 60.6%.

Properties

Crystal structure: face-centered cubic lattice: sodium ions (Na +) and chloride ions (C1 -), alternating in crystal lattice, are located at the corners of small cubes (see Table 1).

The mineral halite is fragile, hygroscopic, highly soluble in water, and tastes salty. The mineral halite forms cubic crystals, solid granular and dense spar-like masses. In caves and mine workings it forms stalactites, stalagmites, and sinter formations. In lakes and lagoons it forms crystalline growths on various objects - plant branches, stones, etc. Often has a rhythmic-zonal structure.

It is easily soluble in water, has a pleasant salty taste, which differs from the very similar sylvite, which is also easily soluble in water, but has a pungent taste. Halite is of chemogenic origin and is formed as a result of the evaporation of sea water, salt lake waters, and the cooling of salt-saturated solutions.
Minaral halite is also found as a product of volcanic sublimation of high-temperature fumaroles (Etna and Vesuvius, Italy).

It is the main compound dissolved in ocean waters - with a water salinity of 35 ppm, NaCl accounts for about 85%.

Place of Birth

Russia has huge deposits of the mineral halite marine origin known in Donbass (Artyomovskoye deposit), in the Arkhangelsk region (Solvychegodskoye deposit), in Orenburg region(Iletsk field), in the Verkhnekamsk region Perm region. Halite deposits of lacustrine origin are known in the Volgograd region (Lake Elton), in Astrakhan region(Lake Baskunchak).

Blue aggregates of the mineral halite are known in Germany, where large deposits of halite are also developed. Beautiful skeletal crystals of the mineral halite are known in the USA.

Application

The mineral halite is an important raw material for food and chemical industry.

Properties of the mineral

Origin of name: from the Greek words halos - salt and lithos - stone
Opening year: known since ancient times
Thermal properties: Melts at 804°C, colors the flame yellow.
Luminescence: Red (SW UV) .
IMA status: valid, first described before 1959 (before IMA)
Typical impurities: I,Br,Fe,O
Strunz (8th edition): 3/A.02-30
Hey's CIM Ref.: 8.1.3
Dana (8th edition): 9.1.1.1
Molecular Weight: 58.44
Cell parameters: a = 5.6404(1) Å
Number of formula units (Z): 4
Unit cell volume: V 179.44 Å³
Twinning: According to (111) (artificial crystals).
Space group: Fm3m (F4/m 3 2/m)
Density (calculated): 2.165
Density (measured): 2.168
Pleochroism: weak
Dispersion of optical axes: moderately strong
Refractive indices: n = 1.5443
Maximum birefringence:δ = 0.000 - isotropic, does not have birefringence
Type: isotropic
Optical relief: short
Selection form: Cubic crystals, often granular or spar-like masses, stalactites
USSR taxonomy classes: Chlorides, bromides, iodides
IMA classes: Halides
Chemical formula: NaCl
Syngony: cubic
Color: Colorless, grey, white, red, yellow, blue, violet
Trait color: white
Shine: glass
Transparency: transparent translucent translucent
Cleavage: perfect by (001)
Kink: conchoidal
Hardness: 2,5
Fragility: Yes
fluorescence: Yes
taste: Yes
Literature: Minerals. Directory (edited by F.V. Chukhrov and E.M. Bonstedt-Kupletskaya). T. II, issue. 1. Halides. M.: Nauka, 1963, 296 p.
Additionally:

Photo of the mineral

Articles on the topic

Halite or rock salt
Halite forms large crystals that grow in voids and cracks in rocks, less often grown into clay, anhydrite and kainite; huge cubes with a volume of more than 1 cubic meter. m found in the upper reaches of the Aller River (Germany) and near the city of Detroit (USA)

Deposits of the mineral Halite

Soligorsk, city
Solikamsk, city
Chelyabinsk region
Russia
Perm region
Belarus
Minsk Region
Berezniki
California

Halite is a common mineral; sodium chloride. In terms of its importance in human life, it surpasses all inorganic compounds, with the exception of water. The common table salt that we add to our food every day is crushed and partially purified halite. Name: from Greek. "galos" - sea, salt. Synonym: rock salt.

Composition - NaCl. Belongs to the class of halides (halogens). Contains 39.4% sodium and 60.6% chlorine. IN pure form- white or colorless. Translucent to transparent. The color depends on mechanical impurities and can be very diverse: due to iron oxides - yellow or red; from clay minerals - gray; from organic matter- brown to black. Impurities of potassium chloride (sylvine) give halite its saturated Blue colour. A very rare variety with a high content of silver chloride (up to 11%) is known as guantahayite (from the Guantaya deposit in Chile).

In the crystal structure of halite, negative chlorine ions form a dense cubic packing. The octahedral voids between them are filled with positively charged sodium ions. Thus, each Cl atom is surrounded by six Na atoms, and each Na atom is surrounded by six Cl ions.

The crystals are cubic, sometimes octahedral. IN rocks found in coarse crystalline granular masses. It forms crusts and druses at the bottom of salt lakes. Occasionally it is released in the form of deposits in volcanic craters. Fibrous columnar aggregates of halite fill cracks in clay rocks.

Glass shine; on a weathered surface - greasy. Trait: white. Fragile. Fracture: conchoidal. The cleavage is perfect to the cube. Hardness: 2. Medium specific gravity: 2.2 g/cm3. Has high thermal conductivity. Halite can be easily distinguished from similar minerals by its high solubility in water and salty taste.

Halite is a widespread mineral of exogenous origin. It is formed mainly during sedimentary processes in places with a dry and hot climate - endorheic salt lakes and shallow sea bays.

It crystallizes in small quantities during soil salinization, as well as in craters and on the slopes of volcanoes or on lavas - in the so-called volcanic sublimates. Associated minerals include: , sylvite, carnallite.

Depending on their origin, four types of halite are distinguished:

Self-sedimented (cage) salt, which forms in the form of granular crusts and druses in evaporite basins;

Rock salt, which occurs in large crystalline masses between rock layers;

formed as a result of compaction of sedimentary deposits of halite that arose in past geological eras;

Volcanic salt, which is found in the form of asbestos-like aggregates in fumaroles, craters and lavas; crystallizes during volcanic sublimations;

Salt efflorescences (salt marshes), which are deposits and crusts on the surface of soils in deserts and steppe regions.

The most significant reserves of halite are concentrated in rock salt deposits. The largest deposits were formed during the Permian period (250 - 300 million years ago), when almost the entire territory of modern Eurasia and North America reigned dry and hot climate. Self-settlement deposits formed in our era are also of great industrial importance.

In Russia, large deposits of rock salt are located in the Urals (Sol-Iletsk, Solikamskoye), near Irkutsk (Usolye-Sibirskoye). Self-settled salt has long been developed in the lower reaches of the Volga, on the shores of the Russian “Dead Sea” - Lake Baskunchak. Nowadays, about 100 wagons (!) of salt are exported daily from this largest “salt shaker” in Russia.

In Ukraine, rock salt is mined in the Donetsk region (Artemovskoye), and self-planting salt in the Crimea (Sivash). Large deposits of halite are located along the Himalayas in northern India (Punjab) and in a number of southern US states (Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Kansas). The most famous salt lake deposits are Urmia (Iran), Bolshoye Salt Lake(Utah, USA). Halite crystals larger than 10 cm in size are found in the salt mines of Bochnia and Wieliczka (Poland). Beautiful blue and lilac druses are mined near Bernburg (Germany).

Spectacular skeletal crystals are found in California (USA).

The average annual consumption of table salt is about 4 kg per person. This is the most important, vital food product. In addition, halite is widely used in the chemical industry (for the production of hydrochloric acid, sodium peroxide and other Na and Cl compounds), in medicine, metallurgy, soap making and in many other industries. Statisticians have calculated that sodium chloride is used in more than 10 thousand (!) different cases.

As the Russian proverb says, “Salt is the head of everything, without salt and life is grass.” We are accustomed to its abundance, but once upon a time there was a shortage of salt and it was literally worth its weight in gold. Because of her, they staged riots and started wars. A very special attitude towards this product has developed over thousands of years and is largely determined by its preservative properties, which have been known to people since primitive times. Indeed, in the absence of the possibility of freezing, salting was the only way of long-term storage of meat or fish in that era.

In the old days, salt was transported under heavy security. According to one version, the very origin of the word “soldier” is associated with salt. In addition to other allowances, the soldiers accompanying the valuable cargo received a separate salt ration or money to purchase it. This special reward was called the word “salarium” (hence the English “salary” - salary, salary), and one of the meanings in Lat. "datum" - gift. It is very likely that the French word “soldat” in its original sense means “gifted with salt.”

Without salt, a person cannot survive! When we sweat, we lose not only water, but also salt. Anyone traveling through the desert needs to drink salted water: ordinary fresh water is harmful if left in the heat for a long time. Hence the custom among African hunters of drinking the blood of freshly killed animals - this is a suitable opportunity to replenish the body’s need for salt.

Since ancient times, soldiers were given something salty before a long march, for example, dried fish. Marathon athletes are given salted water as food during the race. Animals also cannot live without halite. IN wildlife even the most cautious animals take risks just to get to him.

The concentration of salt in sea water coincides with the salt composition of the blood, so if you cut yourself on the edges of a shell in the sea, the pain is almost not felt. This once again indicates that our ancestors once got out onto land from the ocean. Medical saline solutions are essentially sea water, to which nutrients have been added.

A large deficiency of salt in the body causes mental disorders, muscle spasms, paralysis and even death. It has been established that a person cannot tolerate a completely salt-free diet for more than 10 days without the most serious consequences. Lack of salt causes wounds to heal poorly. Napoleon's army retreating from Russia suffered huge losses not because of hunger, but because of lack of salt. Soldiers died because their wounds did not heal.

However, excess salt in the body is no less harmful than its deficiency. The Dead Sea is actually just that: the concentration of sodium chloride in the waters of the drainless salt lakes is lethal for the vast majority of living organisms.

Any substance, even the most harmless one, can become a poison - the harm (as well as the benefit) is determined by the dose.

At all times and different nations Sprinkling salt means trouble and loss of health. In 146 BC. e. After a three-year siege, the Romans captured Carthage. According to a resolution of the Senate, the city was completely destroyed: it was burned to the ground, and the ruins were sprinkled with salt so that it would never be reborn. In the end, that's what happened - he was not revived!

The colony founded here by Julius Caesar was finally plundered and destroyed by the Arabs at the end of the 7th century. Since then, no one else has settled in this place. Probably over this historical fact It's worth thinking about for those who sprinkle salt on the streets of modern Russian cities, trying in such a dubious way to clear them of snow.