Integrated Calendar

Layered halite sequences were deposited in deep hypersaline basins throughout the geological record. These sequences are of research interest for hydrocarbon extraction, mineral exploration, tectonics and structural geology and paleoclimate research. Modern analogs and the processes leading to deposition of thick halite sequences were studied only through analyses of the common modern, shallow environments, which are fundamentally different in their nature from halite-depositing, deep waterbodies. Thus, the spatiotemporal evolution of halite sequences remained ambiguous. I will present, first, a study of the active precipitation of halite layers from the only modern analog in the world for deep, halite-precipitating basin; the hypersaline Dead Sea. Then the implications of these results to the geological record will be emphasized. Novel in situ observations in the Dead Sea link seasonal hydroclimatic conditions, thermohaline stratification, halite saturation, and the characteristics of the actively forming halite layers. The main findings of this study are: (a) Halite deposition dynamics is directly related to the development of the thermohaline stratification and it is primarily temperature controlled; it is counter-intuitive to the common approach that focus on the role of the hydrological budget in the study of hypersaline environments. (b) A pronounced depth dependency of the degree of halite saturation and halite deposition. (c) A well-defined seasonality of halite deposition on the deep lakefloor. (d) Preferential halite accumulation at the deep, hypolimnetic lake floor (>25m depth) due to intensive halite dissolution at the shallow epilimnetic lakefloor, and its re-deposition at depth, in a process termed “halite focusing”. (e) Halite accumulates at high rates in the deep lakefloor, doubling (or even more) the expected thickness without halite focusing. (f) Freshwater inflows further amplify halite thickness at the drier parts of the lake. These findings provide insights and quantify the processes required for reconstructing past hypersaline environments from halite sequences, in the Dead Sea and worldwide.

The fact that many crystals are not in equilibrium is quite obvious and not very surprising. Yet, this often complicates our attempts to understand some of their most fundamental properties, such as for instance, their overall morphology. To further add to this complexity, non-equilibrium properties are nowadays studied in crystals made out of building blocks that consume energy and actively propel (i.e., active matter).
Despite some complications that exist when trying to make analogies between the behavior of bulk crystals and their nanoscale analogs, the latter offer many advantages when studying kinetic aspects of crystal formation, in both “conventional” as well as “active” crystals. In my talk I will present two different cases where nanocrystals are used in order to shed light on some of these aspects. The first story dates all the way back to the 19th century and the seminal work by Louis Pasteur on crystals that exhibit chiral macroscopic shapes when made out of chiral building blocks. Using a model system of tellurium nanocrystals, I was able to show that the reason for chiral shape formation in crystals composed of chiral building blocks might not always be as trivial as expected. In the second part of the talk, I will present the first steps I took on an ongoing journey to understand the diffusion of extremely small (sub 10 nm) chemically propelled nanocrystals. This is meant to pave the way to ultimately use them as building blocks for non-equilibrium active crystalline matter.