Red lakes in Google Earth
by Timothy Whitehead on Apr.02, 2015, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA
Last month we got an enquiry from GEB reader Mostafa, asking for a scientific explanation for a red lake that appears in Google Earth imagery in Cairo, Egypt. More recently, GEB reader David brought our attention to this episode of a series called ‘What on Earth’, regarding a red lake in Bagdad, for which it does not actually give an explanation.
So, we thought it was a good time to give an explanation, and point out some red lakes around the world that are visible in Google Earth imagery. The red colour is caused by certain species of halophile bacteria that thrive in very salty water. Some of the red lakes we will see are salt evaporation ponds used for extracting salt from sea water. Other striking colours are also common in salt ponds, including brown, yellow, green and turquoise.
The red lake in Cairo, Egypt.
Salt ponds near San Francisco, California.
Red lake in Bagdad, Iraq.
Potash ponds, Utah, USA. In this case, the surrounding land is red, and the lakes are beautiful shades of blue.
Some beautiful patterns in Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA
Torrevieja, Spain.
To find the locations above and more in Google Earth, you can download this KML file
.
To see some beautiful aerial photos of the San Francisco salt ponds, try this Google Image search.
See here for an article about California’s pink salt lakes and salt flats.
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