Salt Ponds
I noticed that these last two images are of the same place but with different colors. So I Googled the reason why. (You'll get a chuckle out of my source.)
The color tells how much salt there is left in the water. Green colors come from special algae. These algae are there in low to mid salinity ponds (ponds with little salt in the water). In middle to high salinity ponds, an alga called Dunaliella salina shifts the color to red. Millions of tiny brine shrimp create an orange cast in mid-salinity ponds. Other bacteria such as Stichococcus also contribute tints. These colors are especially interesting to airplane passengers or astronauts passing above due to their somewhat artistic formations of shape and color.
Well, if we're going to be building desalination plants around the world for water, there will be more and more of them. Just found out the other day, listening to NPR, that the salt brine left from desalinization also contains lithium which can be used for batteries. Imagine - no more lithium mines!
ReplyDeleteFascinating and beautiful!
ReplyDeletePat - A dirty little secret is how dirty mining for lithium is. Maybe the lithium from desalinization is enough for flashlight batteries and such, but I can't imagine it being enough for car batteries.
ReplyDeletevery interesting
ReplyDelete