Salt water contains sodium and chloride ions. Either cool the liquid or slowly evaporate it. If you leave your glass of salt water out in the sun, the water in it will begin to evaporate, and the concentration of sodium and chloride ions in the water will increase. Eventually, enough water leaves that the concentration of ions reaches saturation, the point at which the ions can only just remain dissolved. As still more water evaporates, the ions must begin to precipitate out into solid form, as sodium chloride.
Ions coalesce into a regular repeating arrangement.
As the process continues, the cubes of salt become bigger and bigger until eventually there is no more water and all the salt has precipitated. As soon as all the salt cubes have formed, your salt is completely crystallized . Mineral Classes One way to classify minerals is by the dominant compounds which make them up. The silicates are the most abundant mineral type in the crust. Calcite is calcium carbonate.