Formula: NaCl chloride
Specific gravity: 2.1 to 2.2
Hardness: 2
Streak: White
Colour: Colourless, white, redish, yellow, grey, blue
Solubility: Readily soluble in water
Melts at 804°.
Environments:
Sedimentary environments
Fumeroles and hot spring deposits
Halite is dissolved in the waters of salt springs, salt lakes and the ocean. It is a common mineral, occurring often in
extensive beds and irregular masses, precipated by evaporation with
gypsum,
sylvite,
anhydrite and
calcite. It is a major salt in playa deposits of enclosed basins. It occurs as
halite deposits in steppes and deserts, and in fumeroles.
At the Mallee District, Murray Basin, south-eastern Australia, halite is precipitated in many of the evaporite basins
(AJM 10.1.20).
At Lake Crosbie, Victoria, Australia, halite occurs associated with
glauberite and gypsum in black mud under
a salt
crust which covers the lake
(AJM 10.1.17-18).
At the Francon Quarry, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, halite has been found as a rare occurrence admixed with
nahcolite
(Minrec 37.1.36).
At the Solno mine, Inowrocław, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, pure
gypsum was found at the depth of over 13 m, brine at a depth of 111.5 m and
halite from about 120 m on down. In some cases post-mining halite is associated with
gypsum
(https://www.spiriferminerals.com/183,Halites-from-the-Solno-Salt-Mine--Poland.html).
The Winsford Rock Salt Mine, Winsford, Cheshire, England, UK, is the only salt mine in the UK, and the only mineral
found there is halite, in vast deposits
(RES pps 43-48).
At Sheethedges Wood Quarry, Leicestershire, England, UK, clay pseudomorphs after halite have been found
(RES p 191), some associated with palygorskite
(JRS 14.59).
In Nottinghamshire, England, UK, pseudomorphs of gypsum after halite have been
found at the Cliffs, Radcliffe on Trent,
and also at Gunthorpe Weir, East Bridgford
(RES pps 245, 248).
Common impurities: I,Br,Fe,O
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