Economic potential of brines of Sabkha Jayb Uwayyid, Eastern Saudi Arabia
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Economic potential of brines of Sabkha Jayb Uwayyid, Eastern Saudi Arabia Abdulaziz Al-Shaibani
Received: 10 September 2011 / Accepted: 10 January 2012 / Published online: 2 February 2012 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2012
Abstract Sabkha Jayb Uwayyid is part of extensive sabkhas covering wide areas of eastern Saudi Arabia. Other than the production of salt for industrial and domestic purposes, no other economic utilization of sabkha brines is known in the region. Analyses from water samples collected in more than 20 shallow wells in Sabkha Jayb Uwayyid were used to estimate the concentrations and total mass of magnesium, potassium, calcium, and sodium. The total mass of each ion is calculated by multiplying the volume of water within the sabkha sands and the ion concentrations. The volume of water is the product of the saturated sabkha sediment thickness and the specific yield. The study shows that Sabkha Jayb Uwayyid brines are rich in some salts that exist in concentrations higher than that in seawater. The results show that Sabkha Jayb Uwayyid contains about 1.4, 0.4, 0.9, and 9.9 million metric tons of magnesium, potassium, calcium, and sodium, respectively. These amounts and probably more in other sabkhas potentially represent a significant untapped mineral resource in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia based on the current world production and market prices. The total mass estimates represent full extraction of brine from the sabkha and are based on a conservative specific yield estimate. Total recovery is unlikely and the actual amount will be limited by various logistical and climatic factors. Some uncertainty exists in the estimation of some parameters used in the calculations, including depth to the bedrock and hydraulic parameters.
A. Al-Shaibani (*) Earth Sciences Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia e-mail: [email protected]
Keywords Sabkha . Brines . Sabkha Jayb Uwayyid . Sabkha geochemistry . Saudi Arabia
Introduction Sabkha is an Arabic word for salt flat, which is an equilibrium geomorphic surface whose level is dictated by both local water table and wind erosion activity of the sabkha surface sediments. Sabkhas of eastern Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries were investigated early in the last century (Dimock 1955; Curtis et al. 1963; Doebrich and Smith 1979; Smith 1982). Sabkhas were also described in other parts of the world, including along the coast of Baja California, Mexico (Phleger 1969; Shearman 1970), the coast of Sinai (Gavish 1974), and many other areas of the world. The first authigenic minerals in the sabkhas of the Arabian Gulf were documented by Curtis et al. (1963). Sabkhas are found in inland and on coastal areas where the surface topographic relief and gradient are low and groundwater is within a meter or two from the ground surface. The fundamental process of brine and evaporative mineral formation in both cases is similar in that groundwater transports solutes to the surface through the capillary and unsa
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