BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: Arne
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 09:51 PM

OBTW, here's a page on the Wetlands Restoration Project (via the Cargill pages).

I used to ride the bridge and the shore by these ponds and the factory, and the other sloughs and such in the area (we've since moved to the Pacific Coast around Half Moon Bay and a half mile from Maverick's, home of the Hundred Foot Wave").

Cheers,

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: Arne
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 09:38 PM

heric:

You're welcome. Always glad to be of service.

Cheers,

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: heric
Date: 01 Mar 07 - 09:46 AM

Cargill. Thanks Arne. Its website shows the ponds on a virtual tour .

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: Arne
Date: 28 Feb 07 - 09:58 PM

I think that Cargill has agreed to give the land to the public, and to drain the salt ponds and restore them as wildlife sanctuary. So if you nejoy the sight, catch it while you can; maybe in another decate all you'll be able to see is some ho-hum non-descript shore birds and such...

Cheers,

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: leeneia
Date: 28 Feb 07 - 07:14 PM

Ebbie, I'm pretty sure the dead white ones are good old NaCl, one of the products they are after.

Sea water contains more than one kind of salt. Some salts, esp magnesium and postassium salts, are bitter and undesirable. In order to get the NaCl without the bitter salts, they move brine from bed to bed. When they've got what they want, they harvest it mechanically.

Too bad about the radios, Greg B. I'm sure the salt ruined them, but given the concentration of the brine - did they float?

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: heric
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 08:45 PM

I'm not convinced that the colors we saw on Google Earth were not enhanced. (Even if you were looking straight down with the sun directly above you, I don't think you would see those colors as displayed.)

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: Ebbie
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 05:24 PM

Hmmmmm and hmmmmmm again. You have convinced me.

However, what are all those squares of dead white salt that I have seen? Are those different ones?

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: Greg B
Date: 27 Feb 07 - 03:54 PM

The colors are real--- as the salinity changes, different things
live there. The reds are from brine shrimp!

When I was in college, I belonged to a club that flew radio
control model planes down there. Not too far from a giant
pile of salt owned by the Leslie Salt Company.

Most of us at one time crashed a model plane into the salt pond
at the southwest end of our runway. You'd wade out in shin-deep
brine to get it.

I'll tell you what--- that salt bath didn't do a radio that
was still turned on one bit of good! Talk about electrolysis!

Coyote Hills Regional Park made a very good observation point
for the evaporation ponds.

Back in the day, scow-schooners would ply those waters moving
bulk goods (and salt) up and down and across the bay. When the
wind was unfavorable, they'd sometimes wait for a tide going
in their direction, drift on it, then anchor or tie up to pilings
left for the purpose when it gave out or reversed, and actually
make it partways to where they were going that way. In the
South Bay, the wind is pretty relentlessly north-west, so
an ebb-tide on an evening or morning calm could be a godsend.

The park where Chanteyranger works has one of those boats in
sailing condition, the Alma.

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: heric
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 01:34 AM

Well, if it does or doesn't here's another shot at it.

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: heric
Date: 26 Feb 07 - 01:25 AM

(Ebbie I think link no work.)

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: Ebbie
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 01:19 AM

Interesting. Maybe I've never come from a certain angle. Here is where I got my info:

http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/wetlands/sbay_final.pdf

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: Melani
Date: 25 Feb 07 - 12:55 AM

I'm told the colors come from different types of algae and minerals. I've seen them many times, and they are very bright.

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: leeneia
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 10:05 PM

Thanks, everybody. I suspected that that color was a little too much.

Chanteyranger, I've read that getting salt from sea water is not the usual thing. However, the climate at this spot is so dry, the clay beneath makes such a good base, and the market is so close that they can make it work.

Ebbie, to use Google Earth you have to download it. There's a free version. I think it's great. Thanks for your help with the false color bands, even though it didn't come from Google Earth.

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 24 Feb 07 - 12:57 PM

I've flown over them many times, and each time they strike me as very unusual and beautiful. I've never seen them anywhere else, though there probably are others somewhere.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: Ebbie
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 09:42 PM

I didn't even find a search box. I can be downright oblivious. However I googled 'salt evaporation' newark ca and what I found said that they had entered "false color bands" for purposes of display.

I've flown over SF and that area often and often seen salt pans but they have all been white. Dead white, in fact.

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: bobad
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 07:26 PM

It's often foggy there.

Subject: RE: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: heric
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 06:40 PM

Yes, I fly over them a lot, maybe once a month, and I have never noticed anything like that. Makes me worry about my perception. . . .

Subject: BS: if you fly into San Francisco fr, south
From: leeneia
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 04:58 PM

...you pass over evaporation pans where sea water is evaporated and salts are collected. Google Earth has a photograph of these beds, and the colors are remarkable. They are as bright as crayons. To see them, start Google Earth

http://earth.google.com/

and enter Newark, CA in the search box.

The beds are located at the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, not in San Francisco itself.

I would like to know if anyone has flown over these beds and seen colors like that.