Salt Evaporation Pans

May 25, 2010

20100525 – Tuesday - Salt Evaporation Pans2
Photographer:
Lee Anne Willson
Summary Author: Lee Anne Willson

From the air, these turquoise colored salt evaporation pans provide a striking contrast to the surrounding desert. Bristol Lake, near Amboy and Cadiz Dunes in southeast California, has been a source of salts, both table salt (sodium chloride) and road salt (high in calcium chloride), for more than a century. Salt evaporation pans can serve either or both of two purposes: concentrating brine to recover salt or drying high-saline-content waste from desalination operations. The color of the evaporation pans comes from algae that live in the water; the algae’s colors reflect the nature and concentration of the salts. Photograph taken on June 4, 2009, while flying from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Los Angeles, California.

Photo Details: Camera: Canon PowerShot G9; Focal Length: 36.8mm; Aperture: f/4.5; Exposure Time: 0.0010 s (1/1000); ISO equiv: 80

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