I flew to San Francisco to visit my boys and grandkids. It was a very early flight, so most of the way across the country the blinds were down and folks were snoozing. As we neared our destination I lifted the window shade and watched the land below. As we came into the Bay Area I noticed these colorful 'fields' below me.
As the jet continued toward the airport, I saw more 'fields' below
and realized they were evaporation ponds for salt!
The green, rich brown and orange colors are from organisms growing in the salt slurry.
I looked online to find out more about salt production in the Bay Area.
There are over 12,000 acres of solar evaporation ponds in the area.
They produce 500,000-1,000,0000 tons of salt annually.
Who knew?
I looked at the salt ponds on Google maps.
Hmmmm, they remind me of a Salmon seen in native Alaskan art!
I used to live in that area and I remember seeing these evaporation ponds every time I took a flight. Nice to know the old industry is still going.
ReplyDeleteI've flown in and out quite a few times, but this is the first time I happened to be looking out at that particular moment. Generally it seems that the planes come in from the east following route 92 across the bay.
DeleteHow interesting. You'd think some enterprising person would have thought of a way to use that area for housing of some kind. Am glad there is salt intentionally being "made".
ReplyDeleteHugs!
I noticed quite a bit of land that was used for industrial purposes and wondered why water-loving folks hadn't insisted that it be residential.
DeleteInteresting and the ponds do look like a fish!
ReplyDelete