[neilep (OP)]

Dearest Lufflies and Salt-Lake-ologists,

As a sheepy I of course luff seasoning……a bit of salt and pepper really adds a zesty kick to vanilla ice cream..yes indeedy !….out of all the condimental joyness readily available salt and pepper are my all time faves.....……Be careful with the salt though…..ewe could get hypertension and “cured” at the same time !!



See this bloke though.


 [ Invalid Attachment ]
A bloke though.

He’s aving it large harvesting salt from this well salty lake called Retba...It's like....well salty !!.....it’s so salty that it makes the Dead Sea appear positively dilute !!

And the reason it’s pink is because some well ard stuff called bacteria lives in it !!

So….a few questions if I may indulge ewe ?


How do they harvest salt from a lake ?

Does Harvesting the salt dilute the lake ?

What’s the bacteria that turns the water pink ?


Ewe see I’m about to give a talk on 'how to make rock cakes then climb them' and I am sure that someone will ask me about a salty pink lake so if ewe can answer these questions for me I would be most grateful and will almost certainly grin somewhat !…which is nice.

Thanks for your kind consideration in this matter.



Hugs and shmishes



Mwah mwah mwah mwah


Neil
Salt Pepper Mustard Vinegar
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Geezer]

I see your friend Mr Though is also enjoying a very large vanilla ice cream.

There are no flamingo present in the picky, but I'm wondering if it's pink because the flamingos have been "going" in the lake? Isn't that how they got their name after all?

[neilep (OP)]

I see your friend Mr Though is also enjoying a very large vanilla ice cream.

There are no flamingo present in the picky, but I'm wondering if it's pink because the flamingos have been "going" in the lake? Isn't that how they got their name after all?

Thank Ewe Dr Geezer

Gosh..yaysh....it does look like a rather ample portion he's got there !!......and I sheepose ewe could be very right when ewe say the colour of the lake is down to Flaming'0's ............like this one !


 [ Invalid Attachment ]
A Flaming O Last Night


Presumably when the 'O' is quenched the orange flame turns the water pink.....yes yes.....I can see how this all works !..Thank ewe very much. []

[SeanB]

The pink is brine shrimp, which is eaten by the flamingos. The red pigment in the shrimp is expressed in the flamingo feathers, which are normally white ( if they do not eat a lot of really salty shrimp). The lake is fed by rivers or streams that dissolve salt from the ground ( most likely a volcanic rock it travels though) and has no outlet other than by evaporation. This constant input of salt eventually cannot stay in solution and precipitates out on the bottom of the lake as salt crystals.You can then just scoop up these salt crystals ( like in the bucket) and dry them out and sell them as natural salt, although it could contain almost any salt, either sodium chloride, potassium chloride, other water soluble metal salts or even carbonates.

This is sustainable if the amount extracted is less than what the streams bring in, otherwise the lake gets less salty until all the deposited salt now redissolves and is in solution.

[neilep (OP)]

The pink is brine shrimp, which is eaten by the flamingos. The red pigment in the shrimp is expressed in the flamingo feathers, which are normally white ( if they do not eat a lot of really salty shrimp). The lake is fed by rivers or streams that dissolve salt from the ground ( most likely a volcanic rock it travels though) and has no outlet other than by evaporation. This constant input of salt eventually cannot stay in solution and precipitates out on the bottom of the lake as salt crystals.You can then just scoop up these salt crystals ( like in the bucket) and dry them out and sell them as natural salt, although it could contain almost any salt, either sodium chloride, potassium chloride, other water soluble metal salts or even carbonates.

This is sustainable if the amount extracted is less than what the streams bring in, otherwise the lake gets less salty until all the deposited salt now redissolves and is in solution.

Fantastic..thank ewe very much SeanB.....I wonder where I heard that it was some kind of bacteria that was responsible for the pink colour.. I see very clearly about the precipitation of the salt and thank ewe gain for your kind answer.

[Kerry]

The pink is brine shrimp, which is eaten by the flamingos. The red pigment in the shrimp is expressed in the flamingo feathers, which are normally white ( if they do not eat a lot of really salty shrimp).

I thought flamingos were pink because they eat blue green algae, not shrimp.
http://www.thewildones.org/Animals/flamingo.html#pink [nofollow]

[Karen W.]

Also from your link:  http://www.thewildones.org/Animals/flamingo.html#pink

"A flamingo's pink or reddish feather color comes from its diet, which is high in alpha and beta-carotene. People eat beta-carotene when they eat carrots."

"The typical flamingo diet consists of diatoms, seeds, blue-green alage, crustaceans, and mollusks they filter out of the water."

[Kerry]

True - but I'm sure I heard somewhere the majority comes from the blue-green algae.

[Karen W.]

Thank you I did read that about the blue green algae also, as you can see in above post it is a big part of their diet.

[neilep (OP)]

True - but I'm sure I heard somewhere the majority comes from the blue-green algae.

THANK EWE KERRY for your wonderful information and well versed commentage !!!

Thanks again

Neil