Scientists use the word evaporites to describe minerals that dissolve easily in water and precipitate out of solution when the water evaporates or dries up. Halite, or common table salt, is the most abundant evaporite in oceans, seas, and saline lakes; however, these bodies of water contain many other dissolved salts that will leave solids behind when the water evaporates. Where prehistoric seas used to exist, geologists now find beds of calcite, gypsum, halite, anhydrite, and other minerals found in sedimentary rocks.