[3] Halite dominantly occurs within sedimentary rocks where it has formed from the evaporation of seawater or salty lake water.

Vast beds of sedimentary evaporite minerals, including halite, can result from the drying up of enclosed lakes and restricted seas.

[12] Halite occurs at the surface today in playas in regions where evaporation exceeds precipitation such as in the salt flats of Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park.

It produces over 7 million tons of rock salt per year using the room and pillar mining method.

[16] In the United Kingdom there are three mines; the largest of these is at Winsford in Cheshire, producing, on average, one million tonnes of salt per year.

It is common for homeowners in cold climates to spread salt on their sidewalks and driveways after a snow storm to melt the ice.

An example of this would be inducing salt stress to suppress the growth of annual meadow grass in turf production.

[citation needed] Some cultures, especially in Africa and Brazil, prefer a wide variety of different rock salts for different dishes.

In some ancient civilizations the practice of salting the earth was done to make conquered land of an enemy infertile and inhospitable as an act of domination or spite.

One biblical reference to this practice is in Judges 9:45: "he killed the people in it, pulled the wall down and sowed the site with salt.