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posted by martyb on Sunday January 12 2020, @09:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the salty-quip dept.

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 American West as a growing population puts more demand on scarce water resources.

Along the high-salinity waters [of] Great Salt Lake, the expanded shoreline means there are more places where water can bubble up to the surface from warm, sulfate-rich 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.

[...] There are now four mounds at the Great Salt Lake beach, growing up to 3 feet (1 meter) tall and several yards wide.

Mirabilite mounds are seen more often in places such as the Arctic, 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.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @11:07AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @11:07AM (#942481)

    Mormons on Mars. Should have seen this coming. They got they from the Arabic Pennisula, a slightly lost tribe of Israel than the Nephrites and Lamanites and Stalagtites. But, you know, Jesus appeared to them to, so as not to make them some kind of Seer-Stone cult, but instead real Conservative Trump supporting Christians, sort of, with the plural wives thing, and declaring war on the United States, for a while. And, oh apologizing for not allowing Blacks to be priests, and for having stored up billions of tax free dollars, and just otherwise being LDS. Creepy fuckers, you know! At the Show, "Bonk of Mormon", one of nice clean young men offered me a book, but I demurred, saying, "I prefer to read religious texts in the original language!" Not sure if they understood what a slam that was to their fake religion.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:25PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 12 2020, @06:25PM (#942529)

    *tips hat*

  • (Score: 2) by Muad'Dave on Monday January 13 2020, @02:12PM

    by Muad'Dave (1413) on Monday January 13 2020, @02:12PM (#942729)

    See The Expanse" [wikipedia.org]. They have space Mormons, the Pitch Black movies had space Muslims, and "The Hammer of God" had space Chrislamists.