A 3-D approach was key to explaining the universality of salty polygons.
With sophisticated mathematical models, computer simulations and experiments performed at Owens Lake in California, the team connected what they saw on the surface with what is going on beneath.
The type of salt varies from one playa to another. Table salt, or sodium chloride, dominates in some playas, but others have more sulfite salts. And the salt crusts themselves range in thickness from a few millimeters to several meters. That variation seems to be why previous attempts to describe the playas’ patterns failed.
As groundwater evaporates from the surface, it concentrates salt in the remaining groundwater. That salty water, now denser and heavier, sinks, forcing other less dense water upward. Lasser and colleagues showed that over time, the circulation, known as convection, tends to push the descending plumes of saltier water into a network of vertical sheets. The surface above these sheets accrues more salt, so thick salt ridges grow there.
“This fluid dynamical model makes much more sense than a model that ignores what’s happening beneath the surface,” says physicist Julyan Cartwright of the Spanish National Research Council, who is based in Granada and was not involved in the research.
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