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Posted: 2022-11-13 03:47:58

The Bonneville Salt Flats sit just off of a highway in an American state nowhere near the ocean, but in parts they glimmer as white as a Caribbean beach.

Truck drivers, selfie-stick wielding tourists and gamblers driving to the casinos of West Wendover, Nevada, are known to stop here to photograph the stark white landscape, along with canals of flowing water.

The water's colour appears turquoise because it's been dyed by a mining company that channels brine to ponds where it evaporates and leaves behind valuable minerals.

A woman holding the ends of a red dress up over a lake with a mountain in the background
The water at the salt flats can appear turquoise due to being dyed. (AP: Rick Bowmer)

In the American West — a region with no shortage of other-worldly landscapes — this crystalline expanse near the Utah-Nevada border is an awe-striking natural wonder.

The area is what's leftover from Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric body of water that filled after an Ice Age thousands of years ago.

Tire tracks on salt flats
Tyre tracks cut through the salt crust on the edge of the Bonneville Salt Flats.(AP: Rick Bowmer)

Water remains in some parts of the lake's footprint, including Utah's Great Salt Lake. But elsewhere, it's dried out, including at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

The landscape is flat, but for one-inch-raised hexagons of salt crystals formed by cycles of flooding and evaporation. The crystals can look like snow, a moonscape or even another planet.

Aerial of salt flats with patterns made from cracks
Patterns are visible in the Bonneville Salt Flats. (AP: Rick Bowmer)

The salt is ideal terrain for race car driving — it's flat enough to accelerate and moist enough to prevent tyres from overheating at high speeds.

Racers flock here and drive rocket ship-looking vehicles up to 966 kilometres per hour. Their turns and skids leave tyres tracks at the edge of the world-renowned speedway.

A person who appears to be walking on water in front of a mountain
The Salt Flats lure thousands of tourists each year. (AP: Rick Bowmer)

But much as it has for millennia, the landscape is evolving.

A combination of changes in the environment and human activities like mining and high-speed racing have caused the Bonneville Salt Flats to shrink.

A woman in a white dress walking on a lake with a pastel sunset in the background
A visitor poses for a photograph at the Bonneville Salt Flats.(AP: Rick Bowmer)

When miners draw mineral-rich water from the aquifer underneath the flats and it doesn't replenish naturally, nearby groundwater encroaches and causes the footprint to shrink.

Utah geologists are now researching the combination of causes and how to maintain the thickness of the salt crust and prevent the footprint of the area from shrinking further.

A silhouette of a man on water with a sunset in the background
Changes in the environment and human activities have caused the Bonneville Salt Flats to shrink.(AP: Rick Bowmer)
An adult and child silhouette standing on a lake with a mountain in the background
Utah geologists are now researching the combination of causes.(AP: Rick Bowmer)

When scientists come, they drive SUVs across the flats to measure groundwater levels and the thickness of the salt at stations throughout the area.

They submerge plastic pipes into the ground to extract briny water and examine its mineral composition.

Three people standing in a lake as the sun rises
Rain sometimes leaves a thin layer of water that reflects off of the mountains.(AP: Rick Bowmer)
A person and a car carrying a small caravan over a lake
The picturesque flats bring thousands of tourists to the region each year.(AP: Rick Bowmer)

The stakes of these studies are high. The Bonneville Salt Flats' unique beauty lures thousands of tourists each year to photograph the barren desert landscape.

Rain sometimes leaves a thin layer of water that reflects off of the mountains.

As the sun sets, it can look like people are walking on water.

A child takes a photo on a mobile phone of a sunset with the sunset in the background
The area is what's leftover from Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric body of water.(AP: Rick Bowmer)
A person doing a star jump in front of a sunrise and mountains
A visitor jumps for a photo at the Bonneville Salt Flats.(AP: Rick Bowmer)

AP

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