Calculations show that gravitational settling of ions in an isothermal sediment column could produce increases of equilibrium concentrations in pore waters ranging from 1 percent per 100 m depth for chloride to 4 percent per 100 m depth for strontium.
The migration of ions in a thermal gradient (Soret effect) would cause minor salt enrichment upward toward the colder pole, but the presence of cation-exchanging particles such as clays would reverse this tendency and cause pumping of salt downward. A model calculation using literature data for the thermal potentials suggests that about 5-percent enrichment in Cl per 100 m depth may occur under steady-state conditions.
These mechanisms do not explain the greater enrichments commonly found in subsurface brines, but may modify salt distributions due to other phenomena.