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A28 SCIENCE
Monday 13 January 2020
Rare salt formations appear along the Great Salt Lake

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST did, said Kevin Perry, pro-
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Rare fessor of University of Utah
salt formations have been who has studied stretches
documented for the first of dry lake bed. Much of
time on the shores of the that is due to water being
Great Salt Lake, and they diverted away from rivers
could yield insights about that feed the lake for agri-
salt structures found on culture and other uses be-
Mars before they disap- fore it reaches the lake, he
pear for good. said.
They’re showing up now in Other water bodies in the
part because water levels West have faced similar
at the largest natural lake pressures, including Califor-
west of the Mississippi have nia’s Owens Lake. It dried
been lowered by drought up as water was diverted
and water diversion, ex- to Los Angeles over the
posing more shoreline. It’s last century, leaving wind-
a story that’s playing out blown dust that polluted
throughout the American the air before a recent
West as a growing popula- anti-dust project brought
tion puts more demand on some water back.
scarce water resources. While the Great Salt Lake
Along the high-salinity wa- is now recovering from a
ters Great Salt Lake, the In this undated photo provided by the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation, are rare salt formations drought cycle, the long-
expanded shoreline means that are being are being documented for the first time along the shores of the Great Salt Lake in term trend has been a slow
there are more places Utah. Associated Press loss of about a ½ foot (15
where water can bubble centimeters) per decade,
up to the surface from four mounds at the Great water bubbling up from tegrate into a fine dust. Perry said.
warm, sulfate-rich springs. Salt Lake beach, growing underground, so they can “That powder will eventu- There can be a perception
When it hits the cold air, a up to 3 feet (1 meter) tall provide clues about what’s ally get blown away or dis- that water flowing to the
mineral called Glauber’s and several yards wide. beneath the surface with- solve into the lake,” said Great Salt Lake is wasted
salt, or mirabilite, separates Mirabilite mounds are seen out expensive drilling, said Elliot Jagniecki, a geologist because it’s too salty to
out. “It has to be exposed more often in places such Richard Socki. He studied with the Utah Geological support much life beyond
to just the right conditions,” as the Antarctic, bolstered mirabilite mounds in the Survey. Park rangers will be brine shrimp, but Perry said
said park ranger Allison by the constantly cold tem- Antarctic when he was a conducting guided tours that’s wrong. Brine shrimp
Thompson, who first saw peratures. There are also NASA geochemist in the to the mounds in Utah this are a $1.3 billion industry
them in October. indications of similar struc- mid-2000s. weekend. in Utah, and the wetlands
The tiny crystals have built tures on Mars, so study of “The mounds are bring- The mounds are expected around the lake are a wel-
up over the last several the mounds in Utah could ing things up from below, to be gone by February, come haven for migrating
months, eventually creat- offer clues on how to ex- that’s the beauty of those and eventually melting birds.
ing flat terraces stacked amine salts found there. mounds,” he said. snow will send runoff into “People have this view-
atop one another like the Salt deposits on Mars could But researchers don’t have the lake, raising lake levels point that every drop of
travertine rimstone and hold clues about whether long to study the Great Salt and likely swallowing up water that makes it into
dam terraces at Yellow- groundwater or even life Lake formations: As winter the sites. the lake is unusable,” he
stone’s Mammoth Hot was ever supported on the turns to spring, warming That’s part of normal fluctu- said. “They are missing the
Springs. red planet, said Robert Zu- temperatures mean the ations with the seasons and point that the lake and its
From far away, the mounds brin, president of the Mars salt won’t continue to pre- drought cycles, but overall ecosystem has needs, and
can blend into the snowy Society, a nonprofit group cipitate out of the water the lake isn’t covering as those needs are not being
landscape along the flat that runs a station simulat- and the mounds will disin- much ground as it once met.”q
blue of the lake edged by ing the planet in the Utah
distant mountains. From desert that isn’t involved Titanic wave of star-forming
above, though, the cas- with studying the Great Salt
cading terraces are like an Lake mounds. gases found in Milky Way
enormous piece of lace “What would that look like?
laid over the sandy earth. What would be the right By MARCIA DUNN
An up-close look reveals detection instrument or matter, using a star cen- ing to Harvard's Catherine
long, spire-like crystals clus- technique?” he said. AP Aerospace Writer sus gathered by Europe's Zucker. Together, they
tered jaggedly together Mirabilite mounds are es- CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Gaia spacecraft when form this wavy, gassy fila-
like something out of sci- pecially interesting be- (AP) — Astronomers have they spotted the wave- ment, why this shape is still
ence fiction. There are now cause they’re created by discovered a titanic wave shaped structure. It's an a puzzle. The sun is just 500
of star-forming gases astounding 50 quadrillion light years away from the
practically right under our miles (85 quadrillion kilo- wave at its closest point,
noses in the Milky Way. meters) long and it's home according to lead author
Harvard University scien- to tens of thousands of Joao Alves. The team was
tists reported Tuesday that baby stars, with the po- shocked by the discovery.
this massive structure has tential for countless more No one expected "we live
been hiding out in the stellar births, according to next to a giant, wave-like
Milky Way galaxy's spiral the paper published in the collection of gas — or that
arm closest to Earth. journal Nature. All these it forms the local arm of
The researchers were stellar nurseries, or star- the Milky Way," Harvard's
building a 3-D map of forming blobs of gas, are Alyssa Goodman said in a
our galaxy's interstellar interconnected, accord- statement. q