ABSTRACT
Supercritical water has extremely low solubility for normal sea salts. This fact opens up the possibility for the precipitation of salt from seawater that circulates in faults and fractures close to a heat source in tectonically active basins (typically extensional pre-rifts and rift settings). Salts may also precipitate by the boiling of seawater in sub-surface or submarine settings. The theoretical basis for salt precipitation out of seawater attaining certain supercritical regions and its geological ramifications have been examined by molecular modeling and reservoir-scale simulations.
