Water with salinity greater than normal sea water is called hypersaline . For example, the Great Salt Lake , Utah, and the Dead Sea are hypersaline. Hypersaline lakes tend to occur in arid areas. They are land-locked basins with no outlet for the waters to flow from the lake. The salts are concentrated as a result of evaporation .
Feldspars are the most abundant minerals in the Earth's crust.
The weathering of other minerals and rocks also provides salts to the sea. For example, the calcite in limestone dissolves in slightly acidic natural waters, yielding Ca and CO 3 . Some of these dissolved solids will be deposited as sediment, so yearly gains may roughly balance sediment deposition. The particular salts found in freshwater, sea water, and saline lake waters tend to differ. The table below shows some of the dominant salts in freshwater and sea water.