I was flying into Salt Lake City last week and noticed an interesting landscape (photo above). After returning home I searched Google Maps and saw that this area was identified as "Compass Minerals":
"At our Ogden, Utah, location at the Great Salt Lake, we draw highly saline waters from the lake’s most remote areas into very shallow solar evaporation ponds to produce salt, sulfate of potash (SOP) and magnesium chloride."I wonder if the coloration is the result of minerals alone, or whether the ecology of the ponds supports some type of microbial or algal flora. Anyone know? [see the comments]
Addendum: Salt ponds in San Francisco Bay
