Modern, non-marine dolomite in evaporitic playas of western Victoria, Australia

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Although considerable effort has been made during the past 30 years to understand the occurrence of Recent dolomite, there are surprisingly few well documented examples of dolomite precipitation in modern continental lacustrine environments. Fine-grained, poorly ordered, non-stoichiometric dolomite occurs in association with magnesite and clay minerals in the modern and Holocene sediment of numerous evaporitic lacustrine settings in western Victoria. We conclude that this dolomite is primary (i.e., nucleated from solution and accumulated as a primary sediment) rather than secondary (replacement of a precursor carbonate). Cores from selected basins show that this dolomite micrite has been accumulating for over 10,000 years.