49  Salt mountains and salt content of oceans
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In spite of extensive rainy periods (pluvial) during the quaternary era, which allegedly started 2.6 million years ago, the salt diapir Kuh e Namak in Central Iran was lifted more than 300 metres above the ground. If this salt mountain was as old as officially estimated, it should have been dissolved long ago. A further factor is that the salt from such salt domes is carried into the seas contributing to the slow increase in salt concentration of the oceans. If the import and export of salt into the world’s oceans is measured, we conclude that the current process has been in progress for a maximum of sixty-two million years. This calculation is based on the unrealistic assumption that originally there was no salt in the world’s oceans.


The most striking substance contained in seawater is a mixture of various salts. When the seawater evaporates, the salts are left. The evaporated water will form clouds. When these drift over the continents and cool down, rain falls. The rain water seeps into the ground, dissolving products of weathering such as lime and salts. Some of the water returns to the surface as spring water, flowing through streams, rivers and the ground water back into the sea (1).

The current salt content of the oceans as well as all exports and imports of salt can be measured today (2). It has been shown that the import of salt today is significantly higher than the export. If the current processes had continued for 3.5 billion years, the world’s oceans would contain fifty-six times the salt content they have today (3).


Rising salt diapirs:
 
Much indicates that the Earth’s climate during the Tertiary period, allegedly 2.6 to 65 million years ago, was significantly warmer worldwide and considerably rainier than in the tropics today. Even if a salt dome such as Kuh e Namak had risen as a mountain of salt in an occasionally desert dry climate, it could hardly have withstood a quaternary period lasting 2.6 million years without having been completely dissolved (4), since considerable rainy periods occurred during the Quaternary era.

Moreover, it can be concluded that the Quaternary rainy periods were considerably shorter than commonly assumed. It will probably be necessary to reduce the age of the geological formations around Kuh e Namak by several decades (5).



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References:

(1) E.K. Berner und R.A. Berner, The global Water Cycle, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice_Hall Inc., 1987)
(2) Bryan Gregor et al., Chemical Cycles in the Evolution of the Earth, 1988.
(3) Steven Austin und D. Russel Humphreys, The sea´s missing salt, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Creationism, 1990, pages 17–33.
(4) Detlef Busche, Reza Sarvati und Ulf Siefker, Kuh-e-Namak: Reliefgeschichte eines Salzdoms im abflusslosen zentraliranischen Hochland, Petermanns Geographische Mitt. 146/2, 2002, pages 68–77.
(5) Manfred Stephan, Langzeitproblem: Entstehung eines Salzbergs im Iran, Studium Integrale, April 2007, pages 12–20.
 
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