Possible Displacive Halite in the Permian Upper Evaporite Group of Northeast Yorkshire1

Halite lying above the potash‐rich interval of the Permian Upper Evaporite Group of northeast Yorkshire, England, is intimately associated with fine red clastics in such a way as strongly to suggest that the former originated by nucleation and growth within the latter. It is inferred that this process took place in distal sediments of a mature basin‐margin plain, probably in a belt subject to repeated inundation caused by periodic large‐scale expansions and contractions of an extensive basin‐centre playa. Such an environment is consistent with the generally shallow‐water to continental origin of the underlying Carnallitic Marl and the overlying Permian Upper Marls, and contrasts with the deep‐basin depositional model customarily applied to the Zechstein evaporites.