File:Bulletin of the Geological Society of America (1918) (20423956146).jpg

Title: Bulletin of the Geological Society of America
Identifier: bulletinofgeolo291918geol (find matches)
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Geological Society of America
Subjects: Geology
Publisher: (New York : The Society)
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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486 E. M. KINDLE SEPARATION OF SALT FROM SALINE WATER Another variety of surface configuration which is occasionally seen on the Salt Kiver salt plains is an irregular flat-topped elevation usually 6 or 8 inches in diameter, which rises only an inch or two above the surface of the mud-crack polygons on which it occurs. These closely resemble in their irregular outline, slight elevation and association with mud-crack, the Pamelia limestone mud-crack hummocks described above. Some spe- cies of algae probably acts as a nucleus for the development of these biscuit-shaped masses. Large areas of the mud-crack polygons of the Salt Eiver salt plains have a deeply corrugated surface (figure 10). This peculiar surface is
Text Appearing After Image:
Figure 11.—Desiccated saline Clay with dried Algce, Salt River, Northwest Territory Half natural size due to a species of algae which evidently grows over large areas of the plain when it is covered by water. After the drying up of the playa the shrinkage of the algae, combined with the irregular efflorescence of the subsurface salt and saline mud which it develops, results in the innumer- able closely spaced zigzag ridges one-fourth to one-half an inch in height (figure 11). In the Salt River playas two types of mud-crack are common. In one the polygons are marked by lines which are distinct and sharply defined, but which, as in the Kingston mud-crack, scarcely cut below the surface.

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