ScienceIQ.com

Saturn: The Basics

To ancient astronomers, Saturn was a wandering light near the edge of the known universe. The planet and its rings have been objects of beauty and wonder ever since Galileo noticed the 'cup handles' that seemed attached to a round world. Saturn is a smaller version of Jupiter, made up of a similar mix of gases, mostly the very light hydrogen and ...

Continue reading...

SaturnTheBasics
Engineering

High Altitude

Have you ever read the directions on a box of cake mix? There are special instructions for high-altitude baking. Has anyone who visited the Rocky Mountains told you how hard it was to breathe there? ... Continue reading

HighAltitude
Geology

Retreating Glaciers Spur Alaskan Earthquakes

Could an extra warm summer cause an earthquake in your backyard? Probably not... unless you live in Alaska. You probably know that friction in the earth's crust causes earthquakes, but did you know ... Continue reading

AlaskanEarthquakes
Astronomy

An Old Science Experiment On The Moon

The most famous thing Neil Armstrong left on the moon 35 years ago is a footprint, a boot-shaped depression in the gray moondust. Millions of people have seen pictures of it, and one day, years from ... Continue reading

AnOldScienceExperimentOnTheMoon
Astronomy

Neptune: The Basics

The eighth planet from the Sun, Neptune was the first planet located through mathematical predictions rather than through regular observations of the sky. When Uranus didn't travel exactly as ... Continue reading

NeptuneTheBasics

Salty Remnants At Death Valley's Badwater

SaltyRemnantsAtDeathValleyBeneath the dark shadows of the Black Mountains, a great, extraordinarily flat expanse of shimmering white spreads out before you. You are at Badwater, at -282 feet it is the lowest spot in the Western Hemisphere. Step onto the trail and you'll see that the white expanse is made up of billions of crystals of almost pure table salt! As your feet crunch along the trail that leads onto the valley floor, you are walking on the salty remnants of a much greener, lusher time in Death Valley's relatively recent past. Not long ago, during the Holocene (about 2000-4000 years ago), the climate was quite a bit wetter than today. So wet that streams running from nearby mountains gradually filled Death Valley to a depth of almost 30 feet. Some of the minerals left behind by earlier Death Valley lakes dissolved in the shallow water, creating a briny solution.

The wet times didn't last. The climate warmed and rainfall declined. The lake began to dry up. Minerals dissolved in the lake became increasingly concentrated as water evaporated. Eventually, only a briny soup remained, forming salty pools on the lowest parts of Death Valley's floor. Salts (95% table salt - NaCl) began to crystallize, coating the surface with a thick crust about three to five feet thick.

Here at Badwater, significant rainstorms flood the valley bottom periodically, covering the salt pan with a thin sheet of standing water. Each newly-formed lake doesn't last long though, because the 1.9 inch average rainfall is overwhelmed by a 150-inch annual evaporation rate. This, the nation's greatest evaporation potential, means that even a 12-foot-deep, 30 miles long lake would dry up in a single year! While flooded, some of the salt is dissolved, then is redeposited as clean, sparkling crystals when the water evaporates.