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Alkali lake near Parma. Rio Grande County, Colorado. No date.

U.S. Geological Survey · undated · Siebenthal, C.E.

A flat, pale alkali flat stretching to a low horizon, a wire fence running across it and scattered dark debris on the crusted surface.
From the archive · U.S. Geological Survey · undated Alkali lake near Parma. Rio Grande County, Colorado. No date. Siebenthal, C.E.

U.S. Geological Survey, USGS Library Photographic Collection U.S. government work; public domain. Archive record ↗ · Rights

Source Archival record · verify at U.S. Geological Survey ↗

An alkali lake near Parma, in the San Luis Valley. Where irrigation raises a valley's water table and the water leaves only by evaporating, the salt it carried stays on the surface.

Shows: A salt crust on the floor of an irrigated valley, and how flat the ground it forms on is.

What this does not let you conclude: A cause, or a chemistry. The frame shows the crust, not what is in it; nothing here measures salinity, and the Survey's caption names neither a source nor a date. The album caption and the index card both say "n.d." C.E. Siebenthal's San Luis Valley work was done in the first decade of the century, which dates the collection but not this frame.

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