A saltern is an area or installation for making salt. Salterns include modern salt-making works ( saltworks), as well as hypersaline waters that usually contain high concentrations of Halophile microorganisms, primarily haloarchaea but also other halophiles including algae and bacteria.
Salterns usually begin with seawater as the initial source of brine but may also use natural saltwater springs and streams. The water is evaporated, usually over a series of ponds, to the point where sodium chloride and other salts precipitate out of the saturated brine, allowing pure salts to be harvested. Where complete evaporation in this fashion was not routinely achievable due to weather, salt was produced from the concentrated brine by boiling the brine.
One of the earliest salterns for the harvesting of salt is argued to have taken place on Xiechi Lake, Shanxi, China by 6000 BC. Strong archaeological evidence of salt making dating to 2000 BC is found in the ruins of Zhongba at Chongqing.
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