Geochemical studies on evaporitic minerals, with the emphasis on sodium sulfate, in Tutak craters of Rayen Town (Kerman Province)

In the nature, sodium sulfate is one of the most common dissolveds minerals in the water. There are a lot of sodium sulfate in the Tutak craters, which locate in the Rayen city, 120 km southeast of Kerman. Since the perfect time to blooming of sodium sulfate occurs at the late summer and early October, so, sampling of sodium sulfate for this study, done in early September. Samples took from the depths of 30 – 50 cm of the ground surface; and then, they sent to the mineral processing company for XRF, XRD and SEM analysing methods. Mineralogical studies indicate that the sodium sulfate in this area is tenardite type. According to the XRF results and camparison with the major oxides of the Erth,s crust, Na2O is the most abundant oxide in the evaporite minerals of the studied area, SO3 abundances show a direct relationship with the amount of sodium. On the basis of Spearman,s correlation coefficient, which has plotted for XRF data, correlation coefficient of Na2O and SO3, is equal to +1, indicafing dominance of tenardite.