Salty sight on Utah shore
Rarely seen formations now pepper Great Salt Lake
SALT LAKE CITY — Rare salt formations have been documented for the first time on the shores of the Great Salt Lake, and they could yield insights about salt structures found on Mars before they disappear for good.
They’re showing up now in part because water levels at the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi have been lowered by drought and water diversion, exposing more shoreline.
It’s a story that’s playing out throughout the West as a growing population puts more demand on scarce water resources.
Along the high-salinity waters Great Salt Lake, the expanded shoreline means there are more places where water can bubble up to the surface from warm, sulfaterich springs. When it hits the cold air, a mineral called Glauber’s salt, or mirabilite, separates out.
“It has to be exposed to just the right conditions,” said park ranger Allison Thompson, who first saw them in October.
The tiny crystals have built up over the past several months, eventually creating flat terraces stacked atop one another like the travertine rimstone and dam terraces at Yellowstone’s Mammoth Hot Springs.
From far away, the mounds can blend into the snowy landscape along the flat blue of the lake edged by distant mountains.
From above, though, the cascading terraces are like an enormous piece of lace laid over the sandy earth. An up-close look reveals long, spire-like crystals clustered jaggedly together like something out of science fiction.
There are now four mounds at the Great Salt Lake beach, growing up to 3 feet tall and several yards wide.
Mirabilite mounds are seen more often in places such as the Antarctic, bolstered by the constantly cold temperatures.
There are also indications of similar structures on Mars, so study of the mounds in Utah could offer clues on how to examine salts found there.
Salt deposits on Mars could hold clues about whether groundwater or even life was ever supported on the red planet, said Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society, a nonprofit group that runs a station simulating the planet in the Utah desert that isn’t involved with studying the Great Salt Lake mounds.
“What would that look like? What would be the right detection instrument or technique?” he said.
The mounds are expected to be gone by February, and eventually melting snow will send runoff into the lake, raising lake levels and likely swallowing up the sites.