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evaporitic

evaporitic

9.5
Formed when water dries up and leaves minerals like salt
  • adjective
  • /ɪˈvæpəˌrɪtɪk/
  • Specialized
translation icon : evaporítico
  • Geologists studied evaporitic deposits to understand how minerals like halite and gypsum formed in arid environments.

Examples

  • Materials entering deeper water by sedimentation or evaporitic reduction in lake volume can exit only by molecular diffusion (Priscu et al., 1999).

    Academic text (1999)
  • The evaporitic landscape revealed extensive salt flats formed from the evaporation of ancient lakes.

  • During the dry season, evaporitic processes create mineral crusts on the lake bed as water levels drop rapidly.

Surface Forms

evaporitic positive

Morphology

evaporitic = evaporite (transparent) = evaporite + ic

Formed by adding the productive adjective-forming suffix '-ic' to the noun 'evaporite', giving a direct meaning 'relating to or formed by evaporites/evaporation'.

Etymology

Evaporitic comes from evaporate, which has vapor meaning 'steam' or 'mist' and e- meaning 'out'. It names minerals and rocks left when water dries and the 'vapor' goes 'out', so evaporitic means 'formed by evaporation'.