Over the past fifteen years a great deal of information has been gained concerning evaporites, such that it is now possible to examine core and outcrop material in order to accurately work out the environ-ment(s) of deposition and some of the subsequent diagenetic history. It must be admitted that because of postdepositional alteration many cores or outcrops convey little information save the presence or absence of one or another mineral phase. In these cases, inferences as to the condition of origin must be made through a veil of obfuscation. Simple processes, such as burial with attendant compaction and loss of water of crystallization due to modest geothermal heating, can result in rocks which look superficially similar to those produced as the primary facies of a different origin. Subtleties within the rock record may reveal clues important in unraveling features of primary deposition, as opposed to later diagenesis.