Neat!

"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch) 09/24/2018 at 13:00 • Filed to: neat

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The Lucin cutoff is what its called.

Its what happens when you bisect a lake by a 12 mile rock causeway separating the salty part of the lake from the part of the lake that gets fresh water annually. Since 1950 the great salt lake has been cut in half by this cause way and the effects are that the north arm has since been evaporating and becoming saltier while the south arm has been repl enished from runoff and becoming fresher and fresher. The result is this really goofy line from blue to red. here, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

As a result the north arm was 6 inches lower than the south and WAY saltier. So salty that semi permanent salt “waves” form on the surface. It isn’t actually wavy, its just ridges of salt on top of the water. I say “was” because as of 2016 they breached the cause way when they installed a bridge to allow the arms to balance out.

I’d never seen it from the air before. Very cool. They say that eventually the lake will not only come to a level balance (which it already has) but a salinity balance.

Filed to: neat

functionoverfashion > HammerheadFistpunch 09/24/2018 at 13:27

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Had I been the excavator operator, I would have been retreating rapidly at that point.

Incidentally, I flew over that area in September of 2016 and just looked back through my pictures. I think you can see the line:

This picture was taken from the southeastern side of the lake, as my flight was going from SLC to Jackson, WY.

Neat, indeed!

HammerheadFistpunch > functionoverfashion 09/24/2018 at 13:29

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My thoughts exactly re: the excavator . It’ s a big lake and a 6 inch elevation gradient. I wouldn’t be anywhere NEAR that breach.

Just Jeepin' > HammerheadFistpunch 09/24/2018 at 13:30

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Fascinating, thanks.

I assume they knew they were going to have this impact when they built the causeway? Surprised they didn’t build it with sufficient flow to prevent what I’m sure was a fairly dramatic impact on the wildlife.

HammerheadFistpunch > Just Jeepin' 09/24/2018 at 13:35

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In the 50s the general attitude towards the ecology of   the great salt lake ( especially from the railroads perspective) was officially: screw it, who cares?

Alfalfa > HammerheadFistpunch 09/24/2018 at 13:39

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I’ve seen it from the air, but it was at least a decade ago and the contrast was not nearly so s tark.

Be nder_neat.gif

Just Jeepin' > HammerheadFistpunch 09/24/2018 at 13:46

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Satellite image, courtesy Wikimedia.

Just Jeepin' > Just Jeepin' 09/24/2018 at 13:51

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Something else I learned whilst perusing Wikipedia: there are an estimated one hundred billion brine flies in the lake.

HammerheadFistpunch > Just Jeepin' 09/24/2018 at 13:54

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Nutty right?

Just Jeepin' > HammerheadFistpunch 09/24/2018 at 14:06

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As I pointed out on fp today in a completely different context, the world is a crazy place.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > HammerheadFistpunch 09/24/2018 at 14:40

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HammerheadFistpunch > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 09/24/2018 at 14:47

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Cool poster. It also illustrates how little they thought about the ecology problem.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > HammerheadFistpunch 09/24/2018 at 14:54

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It was an age of optimism, expansion , and rapid technological advancement . Nothing as trivial as “nature” could stop the inexorable progress of man.

wkiernan > HammerheadFistpunch 09/24/2018 at 16:07

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There’s a ditch, shallowly sloping from one side of the Great Salt Lake to the other, which a salt mining company uses to convey concentrated brine across the lake. Because very salty water is slightly heavier than less salty water, they’re able to simply pump brine in at one end of the ditch, it flows by gravity across the lake, and they pump it up from the other end with only a small loss.

HammerheadFistpunch > wkiernan 09/24/2018 at 16:30

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That’s cool, I didn’t know that