A thick and extensive salt deposit, produced by the evaporation of a large hypersaline sea. One example of a saline giant is the Miocene evaporites of the Mediterranean, which formed by the repeated evaporation of the Mediterranean Sea. Another is the Permian-aged Zechstein salts of north-western Europe (see zechstein sea), which formed as a result of the repeated evaporation of a partially barred marine basin which covered more than 250 000 km².