The solubility of halite as a function of temperature in the highly saline Dead Sea brine system

Abstract

The Dead Sea brine is characterized by high ionic strength (9-10 m) and a Ca-Cl composition. The lake is currently saturated with respect to aragonite, gypsum, and halite. Harned’s rule is applied to calculate the saturation index of halite in the Dead Sea brine system. This system includes brines at ionic strengths in the range of 9-l 6 ~1, derived from evaporating Dead Sea brine. To facilitate the calculation, we determined new interaction coefficients experimentally. These were found to be a function of the ionic strength of the solution as well as of the temperature. 25°C: aNaa-MgC12 = 0.002611- 0.00905, aNaC1-CaCI ~ = 0.001501- 0.00650