Gypsum precipitation dynamics in a large experiment

Gypsum precipitation from a Dead Sea—Red Sea mixture was studied using a large flow-through experiment located near the Dead Sea. In spite of a large variability in the solution’s evaporation degrees and temperatures, the precipitation reaction was arrested at a constant supersaturation. It is suggested that the reaction was limited by the slow nucleation rates which were exhibited at this degree of supersaturation. Thus, insufficient surface area was available for growth, and therefore equilibrium was not achieved.