Natron5/10/2023 ![]() ![]() In the lowest lake in the Natrun chain, there is a massive 1-m-thick thenardite bed located below the 0.5 m halite bed. These natrun beds (aka historical natron) are not just composed of the mineral natron, but also contain varying amounts of burkeite, gaylussite, trona, halite, northupite, pirssonite and thenardite. Writings as old as the reign of Rameses III (1198-1166 B.C.) refer to these natural deposits. Natrun has been mined and traded from these localities for thousands of years. Lake Natrun, while similar sodium bicarbonate assemblages also occur at Behiera in the nearby Libyan desert). Natrun, a mixture of bedded and displacive capillary evaporite salts, is dominated by sodium carbonate minerals, and accumulates as shallow layers and crusts in several sumps in the Wadi el Natrun depression (e.g. ![]() The depth of the lakes ranges between 0.5 and 2 m and is regulated by seasonal changes in influx seepage and evaporation. Water is supplied by underground seepage from the Nile Valley and occasional winter precipitation. The valley contains seven large alkaline lakes accumulating natron-rich salt deposits, as well as salt marshes and freshwater marshes (oases). The lower parts of the valley are up to 23 m below sea level and 38 m below the level of the Rosette branch of Nile River. Wadi El Natrun ( "Valley of Natron") is an endoheic depression in the Sahara Desert of northern Egypt. ![]()
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