Aerial View of evaporation ponds at the Potash Plant near Moab, Utah. Salts are mined and pumped up from deep below the surface, and the solution is concentrated in these evaporation ponds. Potash is extracted and is used mainly as a chemical fertilizer.
gregjonsson, dwarfy, Patient Dinosaur, Martha Grace, and 71 other people added this photo to their favorites.
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Jesse Varner
Jesse Varner
Member since 2005
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tocs 87 months ago | reply
Wonderful colors.
Are the pools blue or is that the reflection of the sky?
Jesse Varner 87 months ago | reply
That's the real color of the ponds - it's not a reflection. Maybe the colors are caused by the minerals precipitating out of solution?
tpl108 87 months ago | reply
Great picture! Love the colors.
clouddreamer 87 months ago | reply
Very cool! The lines, the contrasting colors - all very visually captivating!
Gary73 [NO VIDEO] 75 months ago | reply
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Koyaanisqatsi - a photo movie, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.
Gary73 [NO VIDEO] 75 months ago | reply
look at the similarity: www.flickr.com/photos/gary73/319540825/in/set-72157594415...
I would appreciate a lot if you posted the photo...
Jesse Varner 75 months ago | reply
Yeah, I'm 95% sure this is the same place as appears in the movie. I think Koyaanisqatsi is a fascinating movie - this is a cool photo project!
Gary73 [NO VIDEO] 75 months ago | reply
thanks for posting! :-)
in Koyaanisqatsi - a photo movie
this photo refers to this screenshot
dmbernasconi 68 months ago | reply
The big blue things are solar evaporation ponds. Hot water is pumped underground into the Paradox formation, which is mainly composed of halite and potash minerals such as Sylvite and Carnallite, then pumped back to the surface to be put in these ponds. The blue color is not the waters natural color or the reflection of the sky. A blue dye is added to the water so that the water will absorb more light and evaporate faster. The reason for this is because if the minerals take more then a year and a half to harvest, the production become uneconomical. These minerals are mostly used for fertilizer, but are also used in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other products. The annual harvest from this mining operation is 60,000 tons of potash minerals - what really makes the money, and about 200,000 tons of halite, which is really a by-product of the operation. The plant is Moab Salt LLC. I also have a few pictures of this on my flickr page as well, they can be seen at www.flickr.com/photos/dmbernasconi/539910553/in/set-72157...
as well as some of the stalactites and stalagmites that form from the ponds leaky ponds.
Jesse Varner 68 months ago | reply
dmbernasconi-
Thank you very much for the information!
A Heilner 67 months ago | reply
Molas and dmbernasconi -
Beautiful Pics! I just discovered this mine over the summer, when flying over in a commercial plane. It was June, and indeed the pools were all amazingly deep shades of blue. I went back in August specifically to photograph the pools from a rented Cessna, and they had shifted to an entire rainbow of colors (more like your pics). You can see them at digital.mica.edu/personal/heilner/heilner.net/aerial.fram...
I haven't put them on flickr yet.
ewanargo 58 months ago | reply
Brilliant shot, very beautiful and educational!
szalmo 23 months ago | reply
spettacoloooo! great shot.
CYFfeifei 23 months ago | reply
CYFfeifei 23 months ago | reply
Bird Aficionado Stan 18 months ago | reply
I am so glad I found your photo. I had a similar photo out an airplane window and for the longest time, had no idea what was depicted. Seeing your photo clinched the ID suggested by a commenter to mine.
www.flickr.com/photos/stanchap/6384073547/in/photostream
claudia carlos magno 8 months ago | reply
impressive capture!!! like an artwork installation!!!
carlos pataca 8 months ago | reply
Great work!