Can I find chlorine in nature?

It starts, of course, with good old plain salt: its chemical formula is sodium chloride. We find massive quantities of it in the oceans and in salt mines, where former seas have deposited the salt. There is no “free chlorine” in salt, but it is widely used as a material to produce pure chlorine (Cl₂). How is this chlorine produced? Read the news Is there a chlorine industry in Europe?

Chlorine is widely found in nature in chlorinated substances, also called organochlorines. These are part of the wider substance family called organohalogens. More than 4000 of these natural ChlorineThings have been discovered and described. They are produced by natural phenomena like volcano eruptions, but also by hundreds of bacteria, fungi, marine organisms, insects, higher animals and… yes: humans. Your stomach contains one of the strongest acids: hydrogen chloride.